Ethias-Tour de Wallonie 2024 Stage 5

July 26, 2024 A large break of 16 riders got up the road early in the stage, leaving Tudor Pro Cycling to keep things under control as the race leaders. Attacks kicked off in the break with 50KM to go but they were all together when they hit the first of three laps of a 12KM finishing circuit which included the cobbled Muur de Thuin. Tudor continued to lead the bunch, coming across the line with 3 laps to go, 2 minutes down. Over the top of the Muur de Thuin, four riders attacked out of the leading group and quickly established a 30 second lead, including Matis Louvel of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Filip Maciejuk of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R, and Lilian Calmejane of Intermarché-Wanty. The bunch went through 2 laps to go and only trimmed off 20 seconds to the four leaders but with 1 lap to go, the lead was down to just 40 seconds. Louvel seemed to be on his last legs and missed some turns which caused disfunction in the group. They lost their momentum and were brought back at 1KM to go, just before the Muur de Thuin. The run in to the climb was very technical, lefts and rights, but they had seen it before. Groupama-FDJ had good position into the climb, giving Sam Watson the opportunity to take off. De Bondt tried to hold his wheel but was dropped. A group of five formed over the top but they had no interest in pulling Watson back. Watson had time to sit up and enjoy the moment as a larger group of around 20 were jostling for second place and the remaining bonus seconds. Natnael Tesfatsion of Lidl-Trek led around the final corner but Corbin Strong of Israel-Premier Tech came around and took second place, along with it 6 bonus seconds, drawing even on time with race leader Matteo Trentin. Timo Kielich of Alpecin-Deceuninck came in for third, Tesfatsion fourth. The final GC was decided on countback and the relegation of Strong on Stage 4 was costly. Trentin took the GC prize, Strong in second place and Alex Kirsch of Lidl-Trek took third overall, 15 seconds back.