Aranburu wins the queen stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour on the savage Muur van Durbuy

The third stage, also the queen stage, of the Baloise Belgium Tour was won on Friday by Alex Aranburu of Cofidis. In the finale around Durbuy, we saw an exciting battle between the big names in the five-day race, but in the end it still came down to an uphill sprint.

In the first two days of the Belgian stage race, the sprinters had their say, as they lined up ahead of the Tour de France. On day one, Biniam Girmay of NSN surprised the top sprinters from the Benelux, who then finished first, second and third on day two in Knokke-Heist. Tim Merlier of Soudal Quick-Step won and took the lead, Olav Kooij of Decathlon and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin finished second and third.

Merlier started stage three in the leader’s jersey, knowing that the Ardennes would be too hard for him. The riders were heading into the hills around Durbuy, the domain of Marc Coucke, for the queen stage of this Baloise Belgium Tour. In recent years, riders such as Mathieu van der Poel, Alex Aranburu and Jenno Berckmoes have won there: a different type of rider.

It was hot across Europe on Friday, and that was the case in Belgium too, where the temperature rose towards 35 degrees Celsius. There had already been some complaints about the conditions on Wednesday and Thursday, and that was certainly the case now. It also led to several withdrawals, including Maikel Zijlaard of Tudor, Ivan Garcia Cortina of Movistar and Sam Bennett of Pinarello-Q36.5.

Roy Hoogendoorn of Metec, Stijn Appel of BEAT, Gianni Marchand of Tarteletto-Isorex, Viktor Hannes of ARCO and Michiel Hillen of Baloise formed the day’s breakaway, but they were reeled in relatively early. Riders such as Ivo Oliveira of UAE and Michiel Lambrecht of Flanders then tried to get some distance before the hill zone.

With 55 kilometres to go, Dylan van Baarle lit up the finale just as it started to rain in Durbuy. As the race hit the final 44-kilometre lap, the other favourites, including Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X and Rick Pluimers of Tudor, moved to the front for the finale.

Soon afterwards, Berckmoes and Quinten Hermans of Pinarello-Q36.5, both former winners in Durbuy, made a move with around 30 kilometres to go. Hermans later got support from his teammate Aimé De Gendt, who bridged across from the peloton together with Hector Alvarez of Lidl-Trek.

The other contenders in the bunch sensed danger and reacted. Van Baarle attacked again and went over the top, with Philipsen himself on his wheel. Mike Teunissen of XDS-Astana was also there and followed, along with his former leader Girmay and Pluimers. It was a strong group, and attention turned to the fast finishers.

Pluimers took advantage and rode clear with five kilometres to go. The Dutchman quickly opened up a nice gap and saw the chase struggle, before Teunissen then rode clear alone towards Durbuy. The others were caught by the peloton, where the pace was high. Too high for Pluimers, who was brought back.

On the Muur van Durbuy, Aranburu had the quickest legs, ahead of Lewis Askey of NSN and, among others, Jonas Abrahamsen and Tibor Del Grosso.