The only UCI WorldTour stage race in the Benelux is now called Renewi Tour. The five-day cycling race will become a model event in terms of sustainability under the auspices of new title partner Renewi. This year’s Renewi Tour starts on 22 August with a team presentation in Knokke-Heist and ends in Bilzen on 27 August. Central to the collaboration is minimising the cycling tour’s ecological footprint by recycling as many residual waste streams as possible.
In the Benelux, Renewi is the market-leading ‘waste to product’ company that processes and recycles as many waste streams as possible into valuable new raw materials, materials, and products. The Renewi Tour and its title partner, as well as numerous other partners and suppliers aims to become a (residual) waste-free event.
With this plan, organiser Golazo is building on the green momentum of the 2021 Road World Championships in Belgium, of which Golazo was co-organiser. Using a sustainability study conducted by Deloitte as a benchmark, the partners strive to take additional steps on sustainability together.
“Everything starts from a sustainability charter that we conclude with our partners, suppliers and the various stage cities,” clarifies Christophe Impens of Golazo. “Waste, energy, water, mobility, use of space, … With Renewi, we will greatly reduce residual waste starting this year and will recycle as much as possible. We need a little more time for certain other components but our cooperation with Renewi will run for at least three years. By 2025, we therefore want to reduce waste to 0% and have made great strides with regard to other sustainability goals.”
“Within Renewi, we see waste as an opportunity. ‘Waste no more’ has not been our motto for a long time for nothing, recycling is the key to seeing waste as a source of secondary raw materials,” said Mark Thys, Director Renewi Belgium. “In a circular world, cooperation is the future. Together with partners like Golazo, we develop innovative concepts that go beyond efficient and sustainable collection of waste streams. For us, this collaboration has the concrete goal of reducing the ecological impact of the event and recycling as many waste streams as possible.”
Five-day UCI World Tour
It is not only the Renewi Tour name and ambitious sustainability concept that are new, things are also changing on the sporting front. Due to changes in the UCI calendar, the Renewi Tour is now a five-day instead of a seven-day stage race. In 2023, one of the five stages will take place in the Netherlands: an individual time trial in Sluis on 24 August. This is partly due to long-term agreements with some Belgian cities, but also due to restrictions on police escorts at cycling races in the Netherlands. The ambition is to make the Renewi Tour a multi-day event in the Netherlands again in 2024.
The Renewi Tour starts with a team presentation in Knokke-Heist on Tuesday 22 August and finishes in Bilzen on Sunday 27 August. All 18 UCI WorldTeams will participate in the Renewi Tour, which means the field of participants will be top quality!
Stage schedule:
· 22/8: Team presentation Knokke-Heist
· 23/8: Blankenberge – Ardooie
· 24/8: Sluis (Netherlands): Individual time trial
· 25/8: Aalter – Geraardsbergen
· 26/8: Beringen – Peer
· 27/8: Riemst – Bilzen
