In his final race with EF Education First, Dan McRae overcame the trials of two years with the team to win the second stage of the Tour of Guangxi in Qinzhou. [Big names such as stage 1 winner Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), and John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) followed him.

"I'm really happy because I've been in pretty bad shape the last few years," said Degenkolb. It's great to win a World Tour race, and of course it's not the biggest race of the year, but it's a real sprinter race, so you have to be pretty fast. It attracts a really high level of riders."

"Obviously I haven't been able to show what I can do in the last two years, but today I was able to show a glimpse of my leg strength. I hope to carry that into next year."

McRae took the lead fairly early on and set his sights on a pan-flat finish. With 7km to go, teammate Sepp Vanmarcke attacked from the breakaway. With 7km to go, Belgian teammate Sepp Vanmarcke launched an attack from the breakaway.

It was no ordinary race to the finish as McRae chose the right side of the road and the other leading riders took the left. McRae overtook his rivals with a few meters to go and took the win despite Ackermann's protests in the sprint that immediately followed.

"[Vanmarcke] made it really hard for the bunch to pull him back," McRae said. "We didn't have to do anything. Me and the guys stayed together until the end, but it was such a big road that we couldn't really plan for the sprint.

"Eventually I found my way. I was expecting the group to be on the other side of the road, but it was actually pretty tight on the right side.

McRae, who will rejoin Arkea Samsic next year, had his time with EF interrupted by physical issues; the 27-year-old spent three years with the French team from 2015 to 2017 before stepping up to the World Tour.

"I had some physical issues, and it's a team that doesn't have a big race calendar outside of World Tour races," he said. 'Maybe, as I realized after I got here, that's not really a good fit for me.'

"But it's a compounding factor, no hard feelings. Because that's what cycling is all about."