Ryan Mullen in breakaway ride at Tour of Guangxi | Video

Ryan Mullen leads the breakaway on today's stage 5 at Gree-Tour of Guangxi (Photo: Tour of Guangxi)

Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) has been on the attack on the penultimate stage of Gree-Tour of Guangxi (2.UWT) in China. The Irish TT champion was part of a four-rider move that went clear just after the 60km marker on the 209.6km stage 5 from Liuzhou to Guilin today.

Mullen is in China to lead-out team mate and compatriot Sam Bennett. However, as his sprint challenge has faded in recent days, following a strong 3rd place on the opening stage, Mullen switched track today and went up the road.

His breakaway contained Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), with Bora-hansgrohe's Frederik Wandahl also in the move, in the climbers' jersey. Wandahl, combining with Mullen out front, ensured he scooped up enough points to win that classification once he finishes tomorrow's final stage.

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The four leaders today pulled out a gap at one point of around five minutes and when they crested the cat 2 ascent of Jinzhu Hill with 34km remaining they still had 3:20 in hand, and there was a chance they may stay away to compete for the stage victory.

In the end, however, the breakaway men were caught with 7km to go - the power of the sprinters' team proving too much for them. On the line, Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) surfed the wheels to claim the victory, from Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) and Tobias Lund Andresen (Team dsm-firmenich).

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Ireland's Mullen finished in 96th at 1:07 while Bennett placed 108th at 17:07. Yesterday's winner in the uphill finish, Milan Vader (Jumbo-Visma), retains the race lead by six seconds from Rémy Rochas (Cofidis), with Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) 3rd at 14 seconds.

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