Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has won Wednesday’s first stage of the Renewi Tour. In a star-studded sprint in Ardooie the Belgian beat Tim Merlier and Olav Kooij.
The first stage of the Renewi Tour took the riders from Blankenberge to Ardooie. In the Belgian coastal town Ludovic Robeet immediately forced the early breakaway. The Bingoal Wallonie Bruxelles rider was soon joined by four fellow escapees: Ceriel Desal, Aaron Van Poucke (Team Flanders-Baloise), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-Easy Post) and Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates).
The quintet was only afforded a limited gap, with the sprinters’ teams keen to control the race for a bunch sprint. After having cobbled together a maximum lead of three minutes, the breakaway was caught just before the first of five local laps around Ardooie.
In a star-studded sprint nobody could match Jasper Philipsen. A four-time stage and green jersey winner in the recent Tour de France, the Belgian was perfectly led out by his team-mates and dominated the sprint ahead of Tim Merlier and Olav Kooij.
Dutch Team Jumbo-Visma rider Kooij also collected the leader’s jersey in the Ethias young rider classification. Following his long breakaway, Robeert was awarded the Super 8 leader’s jersey in the combativity classification.
Philipsen praises Alpecin-Deceuninck team
“The team did a great job again to put me in a good position for the sprint,” said Philipsen. “Jonas Rickaert was my final lead-out and it was great to finish it off.”
It’s Philipsen’s second stage win in Ardooie, having last triumphed in 2020. “It’s always nice to sprint here because it’s quite a technical finish,” he added. “The course hasn’t changed much since 2020 so we know our way around her by now.”
Naturally, Philipsen is the race’s first overall leader, but is unlikely to keep his jersey after Thursday’s 13.6km individual time-trial in Sluis. “I haven’t touched my time-trial bike since the Tour, so I’m not expecting too much. But my first goal was to win a stage and that one I already managed to tick off.”
