Mathieu van der Poel (Alepcin-Deceuninck) soloed to the stage 4 victory on the Baloise Belgium Tour. The Dutchman made a late-race assault and held onto a 16-second result in cross the end line alone in Durbuy and lengthen his lead within the general classification.
Thibau Nys (Trek-Segafredo) jumped forward of the chasing group to complete second on the day, whereas Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep) was third.
Van der Poel moved into the general race lead after ending fourth within the stage 3 time trial and now prolonged his result in 40 seconds forward of Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Professional Biking Crew) and 53 seconds forward of Pedersen.
Requested how his efficiency pertains to his preparations for the upcoming Tour de France, Van der Poel mentioned, “I believe I’ve actually fine condition after the altitude camp I did with the group. Solely the Nationwide Championships is on my schedule up to now, so it is going to be just one race left, after tomorrow, earlier than I am going to the Tour.”
Van der Poel will put on the purple chief’s jersey into the ultimate day of racing for stage 5’s 194km race in Brussels.
The way it unfolded
The fourth stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour supplied the sector 172km in Durbuy. The peloton raced on lengthy circuits that included three climbs; Côte de Hermanne, Côte Grand Houmart and Mur de Durbuy.
The race opened with a sequence of assaults till an early breakaway shaped 20km into the stage that included Asbjørn Hellemose (Trek-Segafredo), Aaron Van Poucke (Crew Flanders-Baloise), Ceriel Desal (Bingoal WB), Logan Currie (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) and Andreas Goeman (Tarteletto-Isorex).
The 5 riders constructed a lead out to simply over two minutes, however that benefit was slashed to simply 10 seconds because the race hit the 100km to-go mark.
All again along with two circuits left, two extra riders escaped with Aime De Gendt (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) and Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Dstny). The small hole was closed down instantly shut down by Alpecin-Deceuninck.
As splits within the peloton shaped, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sensed a chance to assault and jumped forward of the sector with 36km to go.
Soudal-QuickStep shortly lodged a chase, but it surely was too late, and Van der Poel, carrying the general chief’s jersey, pushed his hole out to 30 seconds.
His lead grew, whilst an unorganised chase group shaped behind, which included Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Professional Biking Crew), Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep), Tibau Nys (Trek-Segafredo) at 40 seconds again.
That group was adopted by Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Ben Hermans (Israel Premier Tech) at 50 seconds, after which the primary area.
On the uphill end, Van der Poel completed alongside, holding on to 16 seconds forward of runner-up Nys after which Pedersen in Durbuy.
Outcomes
Outcomes powered by FirstCycling
