Andrea Bagioli (Soudal-QuickStep) blasted across the uphill finish at Aubel to win stage 5 of the Tour de Wallonie. He distanced Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) at the line for the victory, with Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) winning the sprint for third and former race leader Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) taking fourth.
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) finished safely in the peloton behind the frantic sprint finish and so took the overall victory after winning Tuesday’s vital time trial stage. Ineos Grenadiers kept the attacks under control in the final half of the race and held a grip on a GC podium, with Josh Tarling finishing second overall.
Six riders formed the breakaway of the day in the opening half of the race, a group containing Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), Ceriel Desal (Bingoal WB), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Mauro Schmid (Soudal-QuickStep), Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix) and Laurens Huys (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty).
Their day came to an end with under 25 km to go, Schmid the final to hold out. While Ineos Grenadiers remained near the front of the peloton, Soudal-QuickStep and Bingoal WB were the most active.
Bagioli launched his attack with three kilometres to go in response to an acceleration at the front by Lidl-Trek’s Filippo Baroncini, and was swiftly matched by Williams for the final sprint duel. The duo opened a 10-second gap on a bunch that was slowly regrouping on the descent. The 24-year-old had enough left in the legs to open his sprint from distance and take a comfortable victory.
“I attacked just like two days ago, but this time the climb came closer to the finish, which worked to my advantage. Going over the top, we had 10-12 seconds in hand, and that was the moment I started believing. In the last 300 meters, as the bunch was approaching, I opened my sprint, and even though it was a bit early, in the end it turned out to be the best decision," Bagioli said. "I am happy with this victory, it gives me a lot of confidence for this second part of the season."
Ganna held the first leader’s jersey with a victory on the opening stage in Hamoir, and then regained the GC lead with a dominant win on the 32.7km time trial on stage 4. In addition to celebrating his 27th birthday on Tuesday, Ganna also claimed the first GC title of his career.
How it unfolded
A day marked with a bounty of short climbs, including eight categorised ascents and a total of 3,328 metres of elevation gain, stage 5 was deemed the queen stage.
The first attacks began 23 km into the race on the Côte de Filot, launched by Vansevenant and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek). They did not get far, so Vaansevenant went again six kilometres later and this time with Desal, Armirail and Schmid, who was the best-placed rider in GC in 11th position, 2:14 back of Ganna.
With 160km to go De Bondt joined the lead group which was opening the gap toward the three-minute mark ahead of the peloton on the rolling route. On the approach to the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons with 144 km to go, Huys joined the front group.
At the halfway point of the race, the five remained at the front with Armirail dropping back to the peloton. As the quartet completed the seventh classified climb and the first of three hilly intermediate sprints, their advantage slipped to 1:35 to the peloton.
All remained relatively quiet after 164km of riding and entering the final 50km, which took place on a local circuit in the eastern part of Belgium. Schmid increased the pace with under 33km to ride and Desal could not stay intact with the lead group. Schmid began to open a gap to the other trio, as Ineos Grenadiers took up the chase.
With 24 km to go the race was neutralised as some of the chasers took a wrong turn. The race was resumed after a 30-second pause and all riders headed in the right direction to the intermediate sprint in Remersdaal, just 12km from the finish.
With 18 km to go Johan Meens (Bingoal WB) attacked from the peloton in an attempt to catch Schmid, who was just 18 seconds ahead. That gap evaporated six kilometres later and the race was back together for the uphill kicker in Aubel.
Schmid’s day wasn’t over, as he attacked again with just under 10km to go, followed by Ludovic Robeet (Bingoal WB). Other attacks followed, a full contingency of Soudal-QuickStep riders driving the peloton for the sprint finish. Bagioli got away to take the win but Ganna and Ineos Grenadiers were in control to secure Ganna overall victory.
Results
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