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Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) took the win on the opening stage of the Renewi Tour, getting the better of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on the uphill run to the line in Bilzen.
Axel Zingle (Cofidis) rounded out the podium in third place on a stage marred by a late crash involving sprinter Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease A Bike) and a fall on the finish line for Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), who finished fourth and fifth.
Milan’s 10th win of the season saw him find the perfect position inside the final kilometre, riding on the wheel of Philipsen’s lead-out man Mathieu van der Poel. The Italian, who holds the first leader’s jersey of the race, launched the sprint first with Philipsen next in line.
Philipsen had the speed to hit the wind and move alongside Milan but wasn’t able to go clear in the final run to the line so Milan held on to win.
Further back it was Frenchman Zingle who picked up his 18th podium placing of the season, while further back Groenewegen and Merlier hit the deck hard as they crossed the finish line after a coming together.
Milan now leads the race by four seconds from Philipsen, while Axel Heuns (TDT-Unibet) lies in third, level on time with the Belgian.
How it unfolded
The hilly 164km stage 1 at the Renewi Tour took the peloton to the province of Limburg in northeast Belgium. Ascents of the Côte de Hallembaye (three times), Côte Sur les Coteaux (three times), and the Slingerberg (twice) featured as the riders took on two laps of the finishing 60km circuit, which concluded with an uphill run to the finish line.
A five-man group consisting of riders from ProTeams made up the break of the day, with Ceriel Desal, Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB), Jordy Bouts and Axel Huens (TDT-Unibet) joined out in the move by Lars Craps (Flanders-Baloise).
Up front, Huens grabbed bonus seconds and the intermediate sprints jersey after proving himself the quickest at the intermediate sprints and the green kilometre sprints. Back in the peloton, the situation was controlled by the likes of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Visma-Lease A Bike, Soudal-QuickStep and Lidl-Trek in anticipation of a bunch sprint finish.
The WorldTour teams kept the break close by, holding the gap at two minutes all day before eventually bringing the quintet back 16km from the finish to set things up for the sprint.
Visma’s sprinter Kooij wouldn’t be there, however, with the Dutchman getting caught in a major crash 15km from the finish. Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan) and Nils Eekhoff (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) were also caught in the fall, while Alpecin-Deceuninck had to work hard to bring Philipsen back to the front of the race after he was held up.
The final run back to Bilzen saw numerous teams vie for control of the peloton as Ineos Grenadiers, Tudor, Lotto-Dstny, and Bahrain Victorious all leading the way at various points. It was Jayco-AlUla who led the way into the final kilometre, though world champion Van der Poel lurked close behind.
The Dutchman duly took it up at the front with 500 metres to go, dragging Milan and Philipsen along with him. It was another perfect lead-out from Van der Poel, but, unfortunately for him and his team, Milan turned out to benefit most, getting the jump on Philipsen and holding him off to take the win.
Results
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