The inaugural edition of the Tour of Guangxi will mark the first time that China has featured on the UCI World Tour calendar since the short-lived Tour of Beijing ceased in 2014.

Despite its late slot, the race has attracted a strong start list that includes sprinters such as Australia’s Caleb Ewan of Orica-Scott, Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria of Quick-Step Floors and The Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen of LottoNL-Jumbo.

"It’s good for China and it’s good for the sport of cycling here in this country," Ewan was reported as saying by VeloNews.

Team Sky’s Mikel Landa of Spain and Wout Poels of The Netherlands are expected to be among those battling it out for overall honours, along with the likes of Quick-Step Floors’ Julian Alaphilippe of France.

Dutch duo Bauke Mollema of Trek-Segafredo and Wilco Kelderman of Team Sunweb are also likely to be in contention.

"It’s always nice to share our sport in the entire world," Alaphilippe was quoted as saying by VeloNews.

Cyclists today trained on the roads around Beihai, which is scheduled to host the first stage tomorrow.

As the shortest of the six stages at 107.4 kilometres, the riders will face two anti-clockwise laps of the city.

The race is due to conclude on Tuesday (October 24) in Gulin, which will provide the setting for a 168.1-kilometre stage.

The finale will be followed by the third annual UCI Gala.

In 2015 and 2016, the event took place on the back of the Abu Dhabi Tour.

Olympic road race champion Greg Van Avermaet of The Netherlands told Brussels-based Dutch language newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that he will not compete in the Tour of Guangxi, but will attend the UCI Gala.

Van Avermaet has already guaranteed top spot in the UCI World Tour rankings.