Renewi Tour 2024 Stage 5

September 1, 2024 A 200KM day through the Flemish Ardennes takes the riders from West to East Flanders to finish on local laps over the Muur van Geraardsbergen and Bosberg. A large break of 21 riders got away but were kept within 2 minutes. Their lead had been reduced to just over 1 minute with 2 laps of the circuit and 50KM to go. Alberto Bettiol of Astana and Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Dstny attacked from the bunch but were brought back before the Bosberg by a significantly reduced peloton of around 40. The front group was reduced to 8 riders over the Bosberg and as the main GC group drew closer to 30 seconds, Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R attacked. Marco Haller of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Jonas Rutsch of EF-Education EasyPost, and Tomáš Kopecký of TDT-Unibet came across from the original break to make four at the front. Matteo Trentin of Tudor Pro Cycling and Per Strand Hagenes of Visma-Lease a Bike got back to the front four to make six at 30KM from the finish. The peloton were charging though and they caught the leaders with 26KM to go on the final time up the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Tim Wellens of UAE and De Lie went on the attack up the steep cobbles and shredded the bunch. Strand Hagenes made his way up to Wellens and De Lie before the Bosberg for the final time with race leader Alec Segaert of Lotto-Dstny stuck in a chase group 15 seconds behind. Wellens took two of the three bonus sprints in the Green Kilometer for a total of 8 seconds, cutting his margin from Segaert in the GC in half. Matej Mohorič of Bahrain-Victorious, Rick Pluimers of Tudor Pro Cycling and Stan Dewulf of Decathlon AG2R bridged to the front three with 16KM to go. Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ did the same a few kilometers later but the group would not stay together for long. Wellens and De Lie separated themselves from the rest once again on the final drag with 5KM to go. They worked together knowing it was mutually beneficial. De Lie went on to win the stage with an acceleration at 300M to go on the cobbles of the Vesten at the foot of the Muur. Wellens had enough of a lead with bonus seconds to secure the GC win for the fourth time in his career and second place on the stage. Madouas came in next, 17 seconds down. Segaert held on to second behind Wellens in GC with Strand Hagenes taking an impressive third overall.