The last stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour 2023 fell prey to Fabio Jakobsen. In a royal sprint in Brussels, he made it ahead of Jasper Philipsen and Thibau Nys.
The final stage around Brussels was a big one but only for speedy guys. The traditional breakaway of the day – seven riders got away after 25 km – was kept under control by the sprinters’ teams the whole day long. The seven were never granted more than two minutes.
Thanks to his adventure, escapee Alex Colman won the Super 8 final Combativity Classification. The Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise rider had already racked up some points in the first stages and no competitors followed in his slipstream.
2-1 for Jakobsen
At 14 kilometres to the finish, the last escapees, including Kobe Vanoverschelde and Thimo Willems, were called to order. A bunch sprint was inevitable.
Mathieu van der Poel stepped into the role of lead-out for teammate Jasper Philipsen in the last kilometre, but the Vlam van Ham had to give way to European Champion Fabio Jakobsen in a royal sprint. The Dutchman was also the fastest in Knokke-Heist on Friday. Thibau Nys, who came second in Durbuy on Saturday, sprinted to a tidy third place.
Overall Victory for Van der Poel
Van der Poel’s overall victory was no longer in danger on the final day. The Dutch Alpecin-Deceuninck rider also claimed overall victory in the Ladbrokes Points Classification. The Czech Mathias Vacek goes home with the yellow jersey in the X20 Young Rider Classification.
