`Thanks for waiting for me,` Matteo Trentin said apologetically as he arrived in the mixed zone in Guilin after winning stage 5 of the Tour of Guangxi. The prolonged podium ceremonies and a visit to anti-doping had delayed the Italian, but then waiting has been a theme of his debut season at Mitchelton-Scott. A training crash in January hindered Trentinīs Classics campaign, before a heavy crash at Paris-Roubaix left him with a compression fracture of his thoracic spine that kept him out of racing for eight weeks. He had to wait until August and the European Championships for his first win of 2018, while his first victory racing for Mitchelton-Scott came on his penultimate racing day of the campaign. `Iīm very happy because I won the European Championships with the national team so this is the first win Iīve had as a Michelton-Scott rider and itīs also my in the European championīs jersey,` Trentin said. `I came here to China to do that and Iīm very happy to have done it.`ADVERTISEMENT Trentin won from a reduced peloton in a rain-soaked Guilin after the peloton had split on the final climb - and treacherous descent - of Jinzhu Hill. Indeed, the Italianīs strength was such that he was among a 19-man group that began the descent in front, but the mist-shrouded corners meant that they proceeded with greater caution, and they swelled in number to 70 or so riders on the run-in. `It was the longest stage and the weather didnīt help the morale, but we knew somebody would try to do the climb hard to give [race leader] Gianni [Moscon] something to think about,` Trentin said. `On the descent, the peloton broke up and we were left with around 20 riders in front, but there wasnīt a lot of collaboration.` A year ago, Fernando Gaviria dominated the flat stages at the Tour of Guangxi, but there has been an eclectic mix of sprint winners this time around, with Trentin emulating Dylan Groenewegen, Pascal Ackermann and Fabio Jakobsen by proving the quickest in the finale in G ...
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