Jasper Philipsen opened his account in the 2024 Renewi Tour by dominating a bunch sprint in Aalter. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider celebrated his 50th pro win in his career, while Alec Segaert heads into Sunday’s final stage as the overall leader.
The Renewi Tour headed to Zeeland for a sun-kissed start in the city of Oostburg, which drew masses of cycling fans. After three local laps on Dutch soil the peloton romped into Belgium towards the finish in Aalter. The fourth stage was heralded as a feast for sprinters, but gusty winds nearly foiled those plans in the opening hours.
Led by world champion Mathieu van der Poel, the peloton was ripped into several parts in a scintillating display of echelon racing, but the lead group didn’t manage to hang on to its lead and order returned to the peloton with 100km to go. Breakaway attempts by a six-man group, including the likes of Bert Van Lerberghe and Dries De Bondt, were skillfully neutralised by the sprinters’ teams.
The expected bunch sprint finally materialised, although a major crash inside the final kilometre severely limited the number of riders contesting the stage win. Jasper Philipsen dominated the sprint, beating European champion Christophe Laporte and Belgian champion Arnaud De Lie. Jonathan Milan, the winner of the first and third stages, had to settle for eighth.
Segaert leads into Sunday’s final stage
Alec Segaerts retained his leader’s jersey, with the Lotto-Dstny rider heading into Sunday’s closing stage in the Flemish Ardennes with a slender seven-second lead on Magnus Sheffield. Last year’s overall winner Tim Wellens follows just 16 seconds behind in fourth, with the clash for the 2024 Renewi Tour set to be a battle of seconds.
By virtue of his stage win Philipsen takes over the lead on the Teamleader points standings. Jordy Bouts (Tour de Tietema) and Segaert retain their leader’s jerseys in the Super 8 Combativity classification and the Ethias Under-23 standings respectively.
Philipsen: “The team deserves this win”
Jasper Philipsen was visibly delighted by his latest bunch sprint win that yielded his 50th career win as a professional. “It’s great to win a stage here, that was our goal this week. The team deserves this win too. In the previous stages I managed to ride my sprint, but I bumped into a strong Milan. In a technical final today I could count on Van der Poel to do the lead-out. That makes us hard to beat.”
Looking ahead to Sunday, the Belgian added: “Three of us are still close in the GC. But with the high temperatures it will definitely be a hard day, so the gaps can become pretty big.”
