Baloise Belgium Tour 2025 Stage 4

June 21, 2025 The Queen stage has arrived and will be the ultimate decider of who wins the 94th edition of the Baloise Belgium Tour. After a transfer from Flanders to Wallonie, the route of today's stage is a circuit race around Durbuy consisting of three full laps, each with five categorized hills including the Champs des Hetres, Petite Sommes, Rue du Bout, Côte de Hermanne, and the Mur de Durbuy. In total, there is over 3,900M of climbing across 173KM and the winner will have to be resilient over the many sharp climbs and also punchy because the finish is at the top of the Mur de Durbuy which is 600M at over 10%. Temperatures were up to 30C (86F) at the start and with it being mid-June, the wheat fields in the countryside were beginning to turn golden brown. Nine riders went up the road but with 78KM to go, only five remained including Dylan Vandenstorme of Flanders-Baloise, Jens Reynders of Wagner-Bazin WB, Alexys Brunel of TotalEnergies, Axel Huens of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, and Gianni Marchand of Tarteletto-Isorex. The peloton was split into pieces with a group of eight riders at 45 seconds behind the break and another group of five, including race leader Ethan Hayter of Soudal Quickstep, another 15 seconds back. The rest of the peloton, which was reduced to around 55 riders, looked to be shut down and trundling along at 1 minute 45 seconds behind the break. The two chase groups came together with 72KM to go consisting of Hayter, Kevin Vermaerke of Picnic-PostNL, Huub Artz of Intermarché-Wanty, Filippo Baroncini of UAE-XRG, Marco Frigo of Israel-Premier Tech, Connor Swift of Ineos, Héctor Álvarez of Lidl-Trek, Orluis Aular and Carlos Canal of Movistar, Jenno Berckmoes of Lotto, Lander Loockx of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, Ådne Holter of Uno-X Mobility, and Olivier Godfroid of Baloise-Glowi Lions. Just 1KM later, Tom Portsmouth of Wagner-Bazin WB, Yorben Lauryssen of Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines, and Michiel Hillen of Baloise-Glowi Lions, who were part of the original break, were caught by the large chase group. With 67KM to go, the race was consolidating into more cohesive groups. The break and the large chase group merged and the peloton got moving, led by Alpecin-Deceuninck, and had the front group at just 1 minute. By the top of the Mur de Durbuy for the penultimate time at 44KM to go, Alpecin-Deceuninck had brought the gap down to 30 seconds and the break was disintegrating. Through the finish line, Aular found himself off the front of the break and just a few kilometers later, he had 30 seconds. On the Petite Sommes, Berckmoes, Frigo, and Baroncini dropped the rest of group two including Hayter who looked like he was running on empty. The three chasers caught Aular over the top and behind, there were still a handful of breakaway riders at 15 seconds with the reduced peloton of around 25 riders at 40 seconds back. The peloton swelled and gained some momentum. They absorbed group two leaving just the four leaders out front with a 36 second advantage at 36KM to go with three climbs as well as the Golden Kilometer still remaining. Ineos started pulling for Filippo Ganna because Baroncini was riding up the road and was virtual race leader. The break was still 30 seconds at the start of the Côte de Hermanne with the Golden Kilometer at the top. Intermarché-Wanty contributed to the pace but they could not bring the leaders back before Baroncini gathered 6 seconds in the bonus sprints. Frigo went on the attack and was solo through the third sprint over the top but was caught by Baroncini, Aular, and Berckmoes with 7.5KM to go as the peloton were closing in at just 20 seconds. The peloton was down to fewer than 25 riders and very few leaders had teammates to control which left the group susceptible to attacks. None were able to split off the front and the peloton came into the final climb of the Mur de Durbuy with 18 seconds behind the four leaders. They crossed the stone bridge over the Ourthe river and started climbing. Baroncini led up through 200M to go when Berckmoes attacked. There was no response and the Belgian was able to take the win for Lotto, 5 seconds ahead of Frigo in second and Aular in third. The countdown started and when the clock ticked 17 seconds, Alexandre Delettre of TotalEnergies crossed the line to take the time for the bunch but neither Hayter or Ganna were there. After the times were calculated, Baroncini took over the race lead by 4 seconds to Hayter and 7 seconds Berckmoes who jumped up 26 spots in GC with the small time gap and the bonus seconds he collected throughout the day.