Strong clearly the strongest with powerful sprint on tough finish in first stage of Tour de Wallonie

While most eyes in the cycling world were on France, with the twentieth stage of the Tour de France and the start of the Tour de France Femmes, the Tour de Wallonie got underway in Belgium. The opening stage presented the riders with 182 kilometers of riding in and around Nassogne, featuring a few climbs along the way.

There was no UAE Emirates-XRG or Visma | Lease a Bike at the start, but the Belgian stage race still had ten WorldTour teams at the start. Of those ten teams, Nicolas Milesi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Ludovic Robeet (Cofidis) secured a place in the early breakaway, together with Kenneth Van Rooy (Wagner Bazin WB), Jordy Decottignies (Tarteletto-Isorex), and Kenay De Moyer (Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines).

Not much happened during the stage. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Israel-Premier Tech took up the chase behind a group of five. With about 80 kilometers to go, when the riders passed the finish line for the first time, the breakaway had a maximum lead of about five minutes.

Towards the finish, that gap quickly closed, after which the cooperation in the leading group broke down. For the Belgians Decottignies and Van Rooy, the pace was too fast with 35 kilometers to go, while shortly afterwards their compatriot De Moyer also had to let go. This left two riders in front with 25 kilometers to go, the Italian Milesi and the Belgian Robeet. However, the peloton had already closed the gap to just over a minute. In the end, it was Robeet who ventured out on his own.

He held his own well in the final. The Belgian maintained his lead by 20 seconds until the final climb. But then things got tough for the man in front. Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Glowi Lions) tried to catch him, but didn't get very far. Robeet was caught 2 kilometers from the finish, after which Israel-Premier Tech suddenly took control. They brought Corbin Strong to the front, but the attack attempts were not over yet.

This didn't prevent the sprint, though. Alpecin-Deceuninck delivered Tibor Del Grosso perfectly. He didn't have the legs for the tough finish: Strong won the sprint with ease. Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X) finished second, ahead of Anders Foldager (Jayco-AlUla).