June 20, 2026
While still rolling, today's 183 km race around Aarschot is far less hilly and should also be far less selective than yesterday in Durbuy. Situated North and East of Leuven, the riders will roll out from Begijnendijk-Betekom for four full laps of a 43.5 km circuit that includes five short climbs on each lap. The Schoonhovendreef (600 m at 3.9%), Nopstal (1.1 km at 3.1%), Blereberg (1.2 km at 3.6%), Houwaartseberg (0.4 Km at 7.9%), and Het Rot (900 m at 3.6%) make up the climbing for the day but it really is not too difficult as all twenty climbs only total 1,200 meters of elevation gain across the day. After the Golden Kilometer with 18 km to go, the roads are flat but in the final 500 meters, the road gently curves to the right which leads into a slight rise to the line in the last 250 meters. Nowadays, nearly every sprinter can handle such terrain so if the sprint teams can keep a lid on the attackers, we should have another bunch sprint coming into Aarschot.
Race Summary
The heat wave has intensified and temperatures were forecasted to rise near 35C (95F) with perfectly clear blue sky. Much like the second stage to Knokke-Heist, a group of six broke away early containing all continental squads. The group was comprised of Jonah Killy of Tarteletto-Isorex, Jarno Bellens of Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions, Michiel Coppens of BEAT-Saxo, Michiel van Vliet of Metec-SOLARWATT-Mantel, Maxence Place of Aarco, and Michael Vanthourenout of Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw. With 92 km remaining, the break had 1 minute 40 seconds left of their 2 minute 30 second maximum advantage and it was Alpecin-Premier Tech and Soudal Quickstep leading the chase behind.
Everything was in a holding pattern and generally uneventful until 76 km to go when van Vliet crashed out of the break. A moment of inattention saw him overlap his front wheel and he came down very hard on his left side. The Dutchman was not able to rejoin the front group and the five remaining leaders carried on to the Blereberg still with 1 minute 45 seconds.
Surprisingly, the gap continued to grow and, as the peloton took the bell with 43.5 km to go, the gap was 2 minutes 10 seconds. The bunch were active however with positioning on their minds for the rolling section of the lap coming just ahead. The five leaders briefly became three on the Schoonhovendreef when Vanthourenout slipped gears. Place was held up in the process and the pair worked to get back on but the front three weren't waiting around. Place rejoined on the Nopstal which took a big effort because the leaders were pushing near maximum but Vanthourenout never saw the front again.
Soudal Quickstep had disappeared from the chase for a few kilometers leaving Alpecin-Premier Tech alone to do all the work and it was showing in the gap. With 35 km to go, the peloton was 2 minutes 10 seconds behind and some were getting nervous. Soudal Quickstep came back and Decathlon CMA CGM added a man which quickly cut 20 seconds but then stabilized once again. Fresh legs of NSN Cycling provided the boost that the peloton needed to get moving. With 20 km to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 10 seconds but the break was able to sweep up all of the bonus seconds in the Golden Kilometer which was of no consequence to any of them.
10 km later, the four leaders had just 30 seconds and the peloton was pushing hard into the gap with the first 40 riders all in single file. Riders were taking pulls and swinging off the front of the peloton like it was a lead out. With 3.5 km to go, the leaders were in sight at 10 seconds but they refused to give in. Someone skipped a turn which left a gap to Killy and the young American turned on the gas. The others were swallowed up and Killy was ultimately caught was well with 2 km to go.
At this point, Decathlon CMA CGM, Alpecin-Premier Tech, and NSN Cycling were in a drag race at the front, each with at least four riders in their trains. Soudal Quickstep and Unibet Rose Rockets were next to appear at the front and the road was getting crowded. Under 1 km to go, Soudal Quickstep were leading, NSN Cycling were nicely tucked in behind and every other train had disintegrated. Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep had positioned himself on the wheel of Biniam Girmay. Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM was on Merlier's wheel and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech was behind one teammate trying to move up beside NSN Cycling. Philipsen squeezed his way in front of Merlier and the sprinters waited until the lead out men had all peeled off before they would be called to action.
NSN Cycling led through the gentle right curve at 500 meters but a rush from behind brought Uno-X Mobility into the frame with Lukáš Kubiš of Unibet Rose Rockets tacked on to the back. Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility was first to launch but on the slight rise, it was too early. As the main favorites opened up, they fanned to the right to get clean air. At 100 meters from the line, Wærenskjold, Girmay, Philipsen, Kooij, and Merlier were spread even across the road. When they came to the line, Kooij and Merlier had put half a bike length to everyone else but it was a dead heat between the two. Kooij and Merlier threw their bikes at the line but no one celebrated immediately. Kooij had come with a bit more speed and was able to take the victory but only by the narrowest of margins and could only be confirmed in a photo. Philipsen out dualled Wærenskjold to take third place and a few more bonus seconds in the process.
Alex Aranburu still leads the race overall but only by 2 seconds now to Philipsen with Jenno Berckmoes in third also at 2 seconds.