Ethias-Tour de Wallonie 2025 Stage 2

7/27/2025 The course from Huy to Sambreville is the shortest one this week at 153KM with 1,600M of elevation. Even though the race starts in Huy, the route does not go over the famous Mur de Huy. The riders start along the Meuse river but only for 3KM before starting the Côte de Gives. There are two more categorized climbs early along the route as the riders dip South away from Namur before coming back North towards the Sambre river. There are two laps of a 30KM finishing circuit in Sambreville with a few bumps in the road but no major climb. The last 500M rises to the line so we could see a similar finish to yesterday. Like yesterday, a break of five went up the road with Timo Kielich of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Filippo Magli of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, Cériel Desal of Wagner-Bazin WB, Olivier Godfroid of Baloise-Glowi Lions, and Alessandro Borgo of Bahrain Victorious. They had around 2 minutes of an advantage on the peloton with 72KM to go as they were entering the town of Fosses-la-Ville. As the team of the race leader, Israel-Premier Tech was doing most of the controlling work but Cofidis and Intermarché-Wanty pitched in as well. The gap was still holding around 1 minute 15 seconds as the break went through the finish line for the first time, marking 2 laps to go. The break took the bell just 15 seconds in front of the peloton as attacks were starting to fly. The road continued to rise through the finish line and Movistar sent Lorenzo Milesi on the move and he pulled a group of eight riders across to make a new lead group. Liam Slock of Lotto, Kristian Egholm of Lidl-Trek, Kevin Geniets of Groupama-FDJ, Alexys Brunel of TotalEnergies, Louis Rouland of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Oliver Knight of Cofidis, and Davide De Pretto of Jayco AlUla were the ones to make contact with the original break. A crash in the peloton with 24KM to go split the group into pieces and disrupted the chase. Milesi was incredibly strong and went clear with Rouland. The final intermediate sprint in Gembloux was on a hard dragging road and Knight was strong enough to escape the second group and bridge up to make three leaders with 18KM to go. The rest of the break was caught by the peloton one kilometer later with the exception of Brunel who was stuck in the middle. Israel-Premier Tech, Uno-X Mobility, and Intermarché-Wanty got more organized and started to chase. The three leaders came into Jemeppe-sur-Sambre at 12KM to go with 20 seconds on Brunel and 35 seconds back to the peloton. Teammates of race leader Corbin Strong and second overall Rasmus Tiller of Uno-X Mobility went missing at the front of the bunch and the pace came way down. The gap was still 30 seconds with 6KM to go and the chase was anything but organized. Brunel was caught so TotalEnergies added a man as did Ineos and Alpecin-Deceuninck. Movistar and Cofidis did a good job putting men near the front of the peloton to disrupt the chase for Milesi. Each of the three leaders were fully committed but the peloton was gaining momentum and had the race within 10 seconds at 1KM to go. It wasn't enough however because Knight fought until the final meter, beating Milesi and the peloton to take the thrilling victory. Rouland held on for third place as the peloton caught him right on the line with Sandy Dujardin of TotalEnergies leading the way for fourth. More than 70 riders finished on the same time including Knight, Milesi, and Rouland so only time bonuses factored into the GC today. With the 10 seconds on the finish, Knight moved 1 second ahead of Strong to take over race leadership with Tiller dropping to third place at just 5 seconds.