Mathieu van der Poel won the Queen stage in Durbuy in a 36-kilometre solo. He lived it up in the Ardennes and dealt a firm blow to the competition. His closest rivals joined forces but had to concede more than half a minute to the Dutch favourite. Thibau Nys claimed second place in this uphill finish, Casper Pedersen and Søren Wærenskjold tried to limit the damage and finished third and fourth respectively.
Five leaders put their mark on the early stages of this Ardennes stage: Andreas Goeman, Cériel Desal, Asbjorn Hellemose, Aaron Van Poucke and Logan Currie. It was not the first breakaway this week for Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise rider Aaron Van Poucke. Once again, he gathered points for the Super 8 classification and is comfortably in the lead, an important goal for this team and they look set to succeed. Even before the finale, this tough course had taken its toll on the five early breakaway riders.
Ben Hermans was the first to rock the boat, followed soon afterwards by the Alpecin-Fenix, Trek-Segafredo, Soudal-Quickstep and strong Uno-X teams who vied for control. On the Col de Petite Somme, leader Mathieu van der Poel shook the tree once more and no one was able to follow his attack. Another 36 kilometres to go in these hot weather conditions and on the hilly course with pursuers on his tail. Jasper Philipsen and Gianni Vermeersch did an excellent job stalling the others.
Leader of the Young Rider classification Mathias Vacek tried to make the leap to catch up with an unleashed Van der Poel on his own but had to acknowledge his superiority. On the penultimate slope, he saw his teammate Thibau Nys overtake with a strong Casper Pedersen and runner-up in the general classification Søren Wærenskjold. The three did not get close enough and on the Mur de Durbuy, they got the chance to sprint for second place. In the end, Mathieu van der Poel had a time buffer of 16 seconds and celebrated exuberantly at the finish. Youngster Thibau Nys cleverly won the sprint for second place ahead of Casper Pedersen and Søren Wærenskjold. Lotto Dstny lead-out Jasper De Buyst came in fifth. Thanks to the Golden kilometre, the Cyclo-cross World Champion picked up extra seconds.
On to an exciting final stage in Brussels tomorrow. Can Mathieu van der Poel capture the overall victory with 40 seconds ahead of some strong bears?
