June 17, 2026
For those looking to get some speed in the legs before National Championships and the Tour de France, the Baloise Belgium Tour is the perfect fit. Over five days of racing, we should see four opportunities for the sprinters with one general classification day on Stage 3 in the Ardennes. The opening stage however is perfect for the fast men as they have to complete a 188 km route on a circuit around Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, just North and East of Leuven. Nearly 4 laps of the 48 km circuit will be ridden with a few obstacles on each lap. Roughly 10 km after the finish line come two cobbled sectors of the Kerkstraat and Heuvelstraat. Another 10 km down the road is the Wingerstraat, a 600 meter hill at 4%. The last hill before the finish comes 3 km before the line on at the top of the Dongelstraat. On the final lap with 46 km to go, the riders will contend for the Golden Kilometer which consists of three sprints separated by 500 meters with 3, 2, and 1 seconds available at each sprint. These will be heavily fought for throughout the week because the GC is always decided on handfuls of seconds rather than minutes. The final few kilometers are straight with slight grade uphill to make the fast men think twice before opening their sprint.
Highlighted Riders
Juan Sebastián Molano, Tim Merlier, Jasper Stuyven, Jasper Philipsen, Jenno Berckmoes, Toon Aerts, Jakob Söderqvist, Cees Bol, Olav Kooij, Biniam Girmay, Riley Sheehan, Nils Eekhof, Jonas Abrahamsen, Søren Wærenskjold, Max Kanter, Mike Teunissen, Tom Crabbe, Alex Aranburu, Milan Fretin, Emilien Jeannière, Anthony Turgis, Rick Pluimers, Lukáš Kubis
Race Summary
The riders set off under hazy skies but with a comfortable temperature of 25C (77F) and a light breeze of under 15 km/hr. Four riders broke clear after the first sprint on the Wingerstraat including Storm Ingebrigtsen of Uno-X Mobility, Olivier Godfroid of Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions, Stijn Appel of BEAT-Saxo, and Roy Hoogendoorn of Metec-SOLARWATT-Mantel. With 78 km to go, they had just passed the Kerkstraat and Heuvelstraat and were on their way to the Wingerstraat for the penultimate time but the race was closing in on them. Counter attacks were flying out of the peloton and the four leaders were caught moments later by the first chase group which contained two-thirds the peloton with the last third frantically chasing at 25 seconds.
From what we could see, all of the main contenders were present in the first split which was calming. Bogdan Zabelinskiy of Aarco took the opportunity to sneak off the front of the peloton with 74 km to go and was joined by four others to get a head start on the Dongelstraat. The other riders with Zabelinskiy were Jarno Bellens and Robbe Mellaerts of Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions, Bart Kortleve of Metec-SOLARWATT-Mantel, and Wies Nuyens of Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw. With 60 km to go, Alpecin-Premier Tech and Decathlon CMA CGM were sharing the pace with Soudal Quickstep on the front of the peloton 30 seconds behind the lead group.
The five leaders arrived at the Dongelstraat with 52 km to go and a lead of nearly 1 minute. Zabelinskiy was popped on the rise but the others were looking good and made the right turn just outside 3 km to go onto the finish straight. They carried on through the finish line to take the bell still with around 1 minute. With such a large lead, the escape would sweep up the bonus seconds at the Golden Kilometer but there was still a big fight for position with the final passage of the Kerkstraat and Heuvelstraat just ahead. Riders were taking up every inch of available space from gutter to gutter and it was nearly impossible to hold position with the churn.
The extra speed in the peloton was closing the gap down quickly but not before Kortleve took the first set of bonus seconds in the Golden Kilometer. Mellaerts won the second sprint with Kortleve taking the third sprint, leaving nothing for the peloton to fight over. Only Mellaerts, Kortleve, and Nuyens were left at the front to hold off the bunch that was absolutely charging to the Kerkstraat and Heuvelstraat.
Lidl-Trek ripped it up the Kerkstraat with Héctor Álvarez, passed the hopfields, which split the peloton leaving only 30 riders in the front group. Pinarello Q36.5 had two men in the front and pushed it on the Heuvelstraat which further reduced the group but over the top, there were at least four riders sitting on from Soudal Quickstep which killed the momentum. About 2 km after the Heuvelstraat, the majority of the peloton had made contact with the front group but the race was reset and riders were firing off the front again.
Alpecin-Premier Tech tried to establish control but it did not discourage the smaller squads from rolling the dice and showing their attacking style. On the Wingerstraat, bigger teams got involved with the likes of Otto Vergaerde of Lidl-Trek and Brent Van Moer of Pinarello Q36.5 going on the attack which split the peloton again over the top. Around 30 riders were at front with more scrambling to get up to the front. Over the next few kilometers, the peloton brought the split back but the entire race was in single file and spread across a few hundred meters.
A truce seemed to be called with 22 km to go which allowed the peloton to bunch up but it only lasted 2 km. Rune Herregodts of UAE-XRG attacked and immediately got a large gap. Huub Artz of Lotto Intermarché tried to bridge to his compatriot but he waited too long and never made it across. By the time Alpecin-Premier Tech, Decathlon CMA CGM, and Soudal Quickstep got organized in the chase, the Belgian had 21 seconds.
Herregodts was a machine and was able to hold on to 8 seconds of his lead by the bottom of the Dongelstraat with 4.5 km to go. Unibet Rose Rockets led the peloton up the Dongelstraat at a moderate pace which allowed Herregodts to turn right onto the finish straight with a 12 second lead and only 3.5 km to go. Uno-X Mobility, Decathlon CMA CGM, NSN Cycling, and XDS Astana were at the front across the road but no one looked committed to opening the lead out to catch Herregodts. The gap was still 8 seconds under the red kite and the first team to blink was XDS-Astana. Every other team but NSN Cycling seemed to completely lose their lead outs and the drag race was between NSN Cycling and XDS-Astana with everyone else scrambling for their wheels. Herregodts was caught inside 150 meters to go as Max Kanter of XDS-Astana started the sprint. Behind Kanter was Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling and Steffen De Schuyteneer of Lotto Intermarché. Girmay came off of Kanter with 80 meters to go from Kanter's left and De Schuyteneer went right. Girmay was the quickest of them and speared through the head wind and the slight rise to the line to take the win. It was only by the slightest margins in the end however because Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep used his talent to make a late charge for second place after being poorly positioned after the Dongelstraat. Kanter hung on for third while De Schuyteneer took fourth on the stage.