June 21, 2026
The overall of the 2026 Tour of Belgium is on a knife's edge and could fall many different ways. With a maximum total of 19 bonus seconds available to one rider through the Golden Kilometer and the finish, there are likely seven or eight riders with a realistic chance of taking the general classification. The parcours for today's fifth stage between Gingelom and Hoeilaart is quite similar to yesterday's stage, both at 183 km and rolling. The riders will have a 75 km ride to the start of a circuit for two and a half laps before the finish. On each lap are seven small hills, the hardest being the Smeysberg which is 600 meters at 6.7%. There is a cobbled section on the Mommaertsstraat which comes 8 km after the Smeysberg, making this the hardest section on the course. On the final lap, the Golden Kilometer sits right between these two points, 17 km from the finish, which is optimally placed to throw a little chaos into the finale.
Race Summary
While not as hot as yesterday, the riders had a baking hot sun and temperatures of 30C (90F) to contend with. A break split off early in the day which included Alexys Brunel of TotalEnergies, Zeno Moonen of Tarteletto-Isorex, Stijn Appel of BEAT-Saxo, Roan Konings of Metec-SOLARWATT-Mantel, Jocelyn Baguelin and Victor Hannes of Aarco, and Kay De Bruyckere of Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw. The peloton kept them close all day at a maximum of 2 minutes and, with 87 km to go through the finish line for 2 laps to go, they had just 1 minute 10 seconds. We got to see the finish straight which was not so straight. The road bent to the right with just 100 meters to go so the sprinters will have to be going full speed well before they make the turn on the final lap.
As the riders made their way around the circuit, we also saw that it was far more technical than it looked on the map. All of the little hills come after dead turns at the bottom so the riders had very little momentum going into each one. Many of the roads were narrow and led into residential areas with speed bumps and road furniture.
With 61 km to go, the break arrived at the cobbled Mommaertsstraat with a 40 second advantage. The cobbles were quite rough and the road pitched up towards the top with a maximum gradient of 13% for a brief period. Moonen was dropped out of the break at the top leaving six riders with just 30 seconds on the Lotto Intermarché led peloton. The bunch had been riding conservatively for most of the day until 55 km to go when UAE-XRG made a small acceleration on the Bergstraat. It didn't coming to anything but it did show intention to maybe try something later in the stage.
The race remained tightly controlled and was almost back together through the bell with 43 km to go. NSN Cycling took it upon themselves to commit riders to the front of the peloton to keep the pace quick and string the bunch out through the technical streets in the first half of the circuit. The break was caught as a result and riders were being shelled out the back. The Swiss squad accelerated up every hill and out of every corner over the next 10 km which thinned out the bunch in what looked like a city criterium. The roads widened on the way to the Smeysberg which allowed other teams to organize and move forward before the hill and subsequent Golden Kilometer.
As we expected, UAE-XRG waited until the Smeysberg and hit the rise hard with Rune Herregodts. Herregodts blew completely but the increased pace kicked off counter moves. Small gaps formed down the group but the elastic didn't break. The peloton bunched up over the top and Olivier Godfroid of Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions took the opportunity to nip off the front with only about 4 km to go before the Golden Kilometer.
Godfroid was super impressive and stayed clear to take 3 seconds in the first sprint, just ahead of Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech who took 2 seconds which moved him level on time with race leader Alex Aranburu of Cofidis. Lewis Askey of NSN Cycling snagged 1 second and attacked almost immediately to go for the second set of bonuses. Godfroid was caught and the second sprint was won by Jenno Berckmoes of Lotto Intermarché with Philipsen in second and Askey in third. In the third sprint, Aranburu came with speed passed Lukáš Kubiš of Unibet Rose Rockets right on the line for 3 seconds and, crucially, Philipsen was not in contention which moved Aranburu back ahead by 1 second over the Belgian with only the bonus seconds at the finish remaining.
Straight after the third sprint came the cobbled Mommaertsstraat which Uno-X Mobility took on with ferocious speed. Near the top, Jonas Abrahamsen went away with Alessandro Romele of XDS Astana. At the top, the pair had about 12 seconds on the chase group of fewer than 15 riders with another 20 riders a few seconds back. Groups consolidated over the top and down to the village of Tombeek and the river Lasne. Slowly but surely, the gaps narrowed and the race was back together with 12 km to go. Mike Teunissen of XDS-Astana countered on the Bergstraat which really stretched the group. Small groups jumped across and the move became unweildy and disjointed. Yet another move went with Dylan van Baarle of Soudal Quickstep, Milan Lanhove of Flanders Baloise, and Jochem Kerckhaert of BEAT-Saxo.
Decathlon CMA CGM did not hesitate and organized a chase with Unibet Rose Rockets. With 7 km to go, the three attackers had 9 seconds but they didn't have belief with such a large group breathing down their necks. Lanhove went solo and was looking great until 3 km to go on the final rise when attacks came from behind. Jasper Stuyven of Soudal Quickstep gave it one last ditch effort to get away which caught Lanhove but a group of around 40 riders were still connected. Abrahamsen was next to go in a perfectly timed counter and again, Decathlon CMA CGM were decisive and started to chase right away. Abrahamsen had about 5 seconds under 1 km to go but was caught 500 meters from the line with the lead out going full speed. Unibet Rose Rockets were setting things up for Kubiš but the first to go was Teunissen at 200 meters. Berckmoes was there to try and match the sprinters but Philipsen was also present and rounded the final corner level with Teunissen and Berckmoes. Philipsen had the most speed coming out of the corner and took the victory and the GC in the process. Berckmoes showed great ability to take second ahead of Max Kanter of XDS Astana in third who would likely have been pretty disappointed that he and Teunissen didn't find each other in the finale.
With the win, Philipsen took 10 seconds which secured the win overall. Berckmoes jumped into second at 5 seconds with Aranburu finishing the five days of racing in third at 9 seconds.