2026 Renewi Tour stage 1 result: Milan takes in by a tyre's width in pouring rain

Jonathan Milan won the first stage of the Renewi Tour. The Italian champion from Lidl-Trek was the fastest in the pouring rain after a chaotic opening stage. Thanks to numerous crashes, breakaways, and strong early escapees, the race could have gone either way, but in the end it came down to a sprint, where Milan held off Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step).

The Vuelta a España starts this Saturday. The Spanish stage race looks set to be a real treat for climbers and attackers, but there isn’t much in it for the sprinters. But the Renewi Tour gave the fast riders a chance to shine at the WorldTour level after all. There were several opportunities for a bunch sprint.

The first opportunity came as early as day one. The route around Diest covered 191 kilometers, but included only 1,100 meters of climbing. Still, five strong riders made their move early on. They included Lionel Taminiaux (Lotto-Intermarché), Timo Kielich (Visma | Lease a Bike), Carl-Frederik Bévort (Uno-X Mobility), Quinten Hermans (Pinarello-Q36.5), and, of course, Dries De Bondt (Jayco AlUla).

The latter Belgian has once again set his sights on the Renewi Tour, after nearly winning the entire race last year with a late breakaway in the final stage. By racking up time bonuses in the early breakaways, he made significant headway. But the peloton recognized the threat posed by the strong group and kept the gap limited to about two minutes. Meanwhile, De Bondt had collected the most time bonuses along the way.

The weather worked in the breakaway riders’ favor: it was raining heavily in Belgium. It also made for a tough test for the riders on the slippery roads: Jonas Abrahamsen was the one who paid the price. The Norwegian rider from Uno-X Mobility was one of the outsiders for the win, but took a hard fall. Fortunately, he was able to get back on his bike.

He wasn’t the only one to crash: NSN and Decathlon CMA CGM had put their riders at the front, but it was Pier-André Coté and Oliver Naesen who went down. It was pouring rain, which made chasing down the breakaway difficult. With 20 kilometers to go, the gap was still one minute: were we in for an upset? They held their ground admirably on the local circuit around Diest.

There was a short but tough climb there. Florian Fermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) picked up the pace there, just as a rider from Tudor went down. That gave the Belgian his chance, and he managed to pull a small group of riders along with him. Among those who made the move were Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché), the defending champion.

Nevertheless, that small group was reeled in again by a select peloton, including Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), and Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM). Meanwhile, despite all the action, the lead group was still holding on. The five escapees fought tooth and nail, maintaining a lead of about twenty seconds in the final five kilometers.

In the final two kilometers, however, the breakaway riders began to hesitate a bit. Would that prove disastrous? De Bondt picked up the pace again, but the rest weren’t willing to cooperate. The peloton, to which some riders had rejoined, quickly closed the gap and caught the breakaway riders. Unibet Rose Rockets sent Dylan Groenewegen to the front, but he found himself boxed in. Milan took the lead and, after a photo finish, just managed to hold off Kooij.

1st Jonathan Milan

2nd Olav Kooij

3rd Tim Merlier