Jasper Philipsen won the second stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour on Thursday. Colombian Juan Sebastian Molano takes over the lead in the general classification from Tim Merlier.
Big crowds attended the start of the second stage of the Baloise Tour in a sun-drenched Beringen. After about 40 kilometres, a leading group formed consisting of Alex Colman, Luca De Meester, Maarten Verheyen, Kenay De Moyer, and Dutchmen Marijn Maas and Casper van der Woude. The peloton allowed the six riders to build up a maximum lead of three minutes.
The breakaway group was still in the lead when they started the four local laps of 25.3 kilometres each in and around Putte. With two laps to go, the peloton broke up briefly but came back together very quickly.
With 45 kilometres to go, the breakaway riders were caught. Three riders – Olivier Godfroid, Axel van der Tuuk and Wessel Mouris – made another attempt. However, after the Baloise Golden Kilometre, they were brought back in line.
The UNO-X Mobility riders closed the gap for good and tried to avoid the expected bunch sprint with an acceleration on the cobbles. This thinned out the peloton considerably, but a large group was still left to sprint for the stage win.
Jasper Philipsen took the win ahead of Juan Sebastian Molano and Jenno Berckmoes. The Colombian, who finished second in Knokke-Heist on Wednesday, takes over the leader’s jersey from Tim Merlier in the general classification. Philipsen follows one second behind the Colombian leader, Merlier is third, two seconds behind.
Friday’s programme features a 9.7-kilometre individual time trial in Tessenderlo-Ham.
