Jasper Philipsen wins chaotic Renewi Tour finale to seal overall victory

The fifth and final stage of the Renewi Tour was won by Jasper Philipsen on Sunday. Despite a chaotic finale, the stage ultimately came down to the expected sprint, where the Alpecin-Premier Tech Belgian proved quickest once again. The victory also secured Philipsen the overall title.

Sunday's stage went ahead without Arnaud De Lie, with the Lotto-Intermarché Belgian unable to start because of illness. Philipsen began the final stage in the leader's jersey, holding a four-second advantage over his nearest challenger, Jenno Berckmoes of Lotto-Intermarché. With bonus seconds available both along the route and at the finish, there was still plenty at stake in the finale.

Lukas Kubis (Unibet Rose Rockets) was another non-starter, while Tudor's Maikel Zijlaard abandoned early in the stage. That came shortly after Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious) and Frederik Frison (Pinarello-Q36.5) had gone clear. The pair were allowed to build an advantage of several minutes as Alpecin-Premier Tech took responsibility at the head of the peloton.

Stannard and Frison stretched their advantage to around four minutes before four more riders attempted to bridge across around the halfway point. Emil Herzog (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) made the first move, before Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Dries De Bondt (Jayco AlUla) joined them.

The attackers stayed clear for a long time, although the peloton had begun to increase the pace well before the finale. Crucially for Philipsen, the breakaway swept up the bonus seconds available during the Golden Kilometre. That meant the battle for overall victory would ultimately have to be decided at the finish.

That was assuming the rest of the field allowed it to end in a sprint. Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) clearly had other ideas when he accelerated, but surprisingly there was little cooperation among the other attackers. As a result, the six riders ahead, whose advantage had fallen to just 15 seconds on the penultimate lap, managed to open the gap slightly once again.

On the final ascent of the Keyzersberg, attacks began flying from the peloton and any remaining organisation disappeared. Surprisingly, it was sprinter Pavel Bittner who attacked for Picnic PostNL. Together with Tomas Kopecky (Unibet Rose Rockets), he bridged across to the leaders, although the peloton remained only a few seconds behind.

Berckmoes then made his move from the bunch. The Belgian had little choice if he wanted to keep his hopes of winning the Renewi Tour alive, but Philipsen responded immediately and locked onto his compatriot's wheel. When the pace briefly dropped again, several more riders sensed an opportunity to attack. There was virtually no control left in the race, despite INEOS Grenadiers attempting to restore some order.

In the end, however, it still came down to a bunch sprint, although another crash disrupted the run-in, with Biniam Girmay and EF Education-EasyPost's Michael Valgren among those who went down. Philipsen appeared to make light work of the sprint, powering to his third stage victory of the week. The Alpecin-Premier Tech rider therefore also secured the overall Renewi Tour title, his second stage-race victory of the year.

1. Jasper Philipsen