Baloise Belgium Tour 2025 Stage 5

June 22, 2025 The final day of the Baloise Belgium Tour moves back North into central Belgium to the capital of Brussels for a stage that should end in a bunch sprint. The route is 183KM with five laps of a circuit around Brussels and offers almost no opportunity for attacking riding. There is 1,200M of elevation but nothing on the profile would be considered a launching point. With that in mind, if riders are to gain time, it will have to be at the Golden Kilometer which comes 60KM before the finish. Bonuses are available at the finish line but it is unlikely that any of the top three riders in GC will be there at the finish to contest for those seconds. Six riders made the break on an overcast day that could possibly turn to rain in the final kilometers. The group consisted of Dylan Vandenstorme of Flanders-Baloise, Michiel Hillen of Baloise-Glowi Lions, Yorben Lauryssen of Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines, Jochem Kerckhaert of BEAT Cycling, Roy Hoogendoorn of Metec-SOLARWATT p/b Mantel, and Alex Vandenbulcke of Tarteletto-Isorex. They had a maximum gap of around 4 minutes and with 73KM to go, it was still holding at 2 minutes 30 seconds with Soudal Quickstep and Alpecin-Deceuninck chasing. With the Golden Kilometer approaching, riders seemed to be resigned to the fact that the GC was locked because Lotto were not chasing and Soudal Quickstep were just working for the sprint for Merlier and the bonus seconds at the Golden Kilometer would be taken by the break. As expected, the break just rolled through the Golden Kilometer which nullified its importance to the peloton. A few kilometers later, Tudor Pro Cycling added a man to the chase but the break were well in hand at just 1 minute 55 seconds as Joran Wyseure of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Josef Černý of Soudal Quickstep, and Joel Suter of Tudor Pro Cycling were doing the work. With 30KM to go, the break started to attack each other because the gap to the peloton was coming down rapidly, now at just 30 seconds. The bunch got very active with 21KM to go and started to fight for position going into a tight left onto a narrow road with the leaders in sight. They fanned out and calmed down which allowed Hillen and Vandenbulcke, the last two riders from the break, to extended their lead back out to 30 seconds. Vandenbulcke dropped away and with 6KM to go, Hillen was caught and Quentin Bezza of Wagner-Bazin WB immediately counter attacked from the bunch. He never got more than 2 or three seconds and was quickly swept up. At 3.5KM to go, Oscar Riesebeek of Alpecin-Deceuninck tried to move up on the bike path for the second time this week and this time it ended much worse for him. He bumped into an Ineos rider who didn't budge an inch. Riesebeek lost control and crashed heavily on to the bike path. After the stage, he received another yellow and since this is his second in the same race, he was given a 7 day suspension from racing which makes him the first rider to receive this penalty. The suspension won't have much of an impact because it is the final stage of the race and there is basically no racing from now until the Tour de France other than the National Championships. In the final 2KM, Lotto did a good job positioning Jenno Berckmoes and they led the peloton through 1KM to go. The scenario changed as they entered the barriers however because UAE-XRG had control through the final corner at 300M and wound it up for Juan Sebastián Molano who started his sprint just outside 150M. He was looking good but Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep was right on his wheel and when Merlier opens up in good position, he is very difficult to beat. In the straight line sprint to the finish, Merlier powered passed Molano and crossed the line with clean wheels. Molano kept his second place with Kim Heiduk of Ineos in third. There were no changes in GC which means Filippo Baroncini of UAE-XRG took the overall by 4 seconds on Ethan Hayter and 7 seconds to Jenno Berckmoes.