Renewi Tour: Jasper Philipsen storms into race lead with victory on windy and chaotic stage 2

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) stormed to victory on a chaotic stage 2 of the Renewi Tour, taking the race leader's jersey in the process.

The Belgian won by a distance in the bunch sprint in Ardooie, which was a messy affair that saw several of his rivals bumped out of contention.

Decathlon CMA CGM dominated the lead-out but never had their sprinter Olav Kooij in tow, while Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) suffered an apparent gearing issue before bumping into another rider.

At the same time, Philipsen found space at the head of the race and opened the taps, with no one able to get near him.

Joshua Giddings (Lotto-Intermarché) took a surprise second place with a strong sprint on the right-hand side of the road, while third place went to Soren Waerenskjold.

Philipsen moves into the overall lead of the race, taking the jersey from Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), who was involved in a huge crash with more than 60km remaining and trailed home several minutes behind the peloton.

The crash occurred during a section of crosswinds on the finishing circuit around Ardooie, which was covered five times and created tensions and sometimes echelons each time they passed through.

The race, however, came back for a bunch sprint, and Philipsen combined the best positional sense with the strongest finishing kick.

"It was hectic all day, with potential echelons, but the team managed me well, and we could do a good sprint – I could time my sprint perfectly," Said Philipsen, who has now won three times in Ardooie in this race over the years.

"It's always nice when the competition is high, it's good for the confidence. It's very difficult to take a stage win with all the strong sprinters here, so I'm happy to take the win today."

A chaotic day throughout

The chaos began early on stage 2 of the Renewi Tour, a 173km trip from Blankenberge to Ardooie, made up of an opening loop and, later on, five laps of the 16km circuit around Ardooie.

The start had to be delayed due to a small crash in the neutral zone, and the neutralization continued beyond kilometre zero due to a safety incident that Belgian broadcaster Sporza reported was down to wet tram tracks. In addition, the two early intermediate sprints were moved to the finishing circuits.

Once they’d left Blankenberge behind, racing began in earnest, and a four-man break finally went up the road, containing: Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Niklas Behrens (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Michiel Lambrecht (Flanders-Baloise).

Their adventure, however, was short-lived, as the wind and the threat of echelons triggered a high pace in the peloton, with the race coming back together at the halfway mark.

The peloton did split at this point, as they headed onto the finishing circuit, with most of the big names up front. And then came the crash, on an exposed section of the lap where the wind was coming from the left. The pace was solid, if not explosive, and an overlap of wheels from an Alpecin rider sparked a ripple in the bunch that brought down many riders.

Amaury Capiot (Jayco-AlUla) was the worst affected, leaving the race in an ambulance, while race leader Milan took a heavy blow on his side and remained stricken for a number of minutes. Milan eventually remounted and gingerly continued to ride, albeit several minutes behind the peloton. Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet-Rose-Rockets) was another big-name sprinter to hit the deck, getting back in but nursing his wrist.

The attacks continued on the following laps, mostly from the irrepressible Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla), with Florian Vermeersch having a brief foray with Vlad Van Mechelen, and Edward Theuns led the race onto the penultimate lap.

But each time someone had a gap, the wind would blow, and the pace would increase in anticipation of the crosswind section. There were splits on that penultimate lap, but no big lasting damage.

The penultimate lap also played host to the Green Kilometre, with time bonuses of 3-2-1 seconds for the top three at three separate intermediate sprints within that 1000-metre zone. Matteo Trentin (Tudor) won the first one, Mike Teunissen (XDS-Astana) the second, and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) the third.

The latest attack from Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) fizzled out, and Red Bull hit the front for the final lap, which wasn’t so eventful as the ones before it. There was a late bike change for Merlier’s lead-out man, Bert Van Lerberghe, but otherwise no big action as the race instead wound up for a bunch sprint.

It was Decathlon who took charge with 2km to go, but Kooij was not latched on, and when he saw a gap he hesitated and then was squeezed out of contention. Merlier was looking down at his gears when he bumped into the wheel in front, and that sent him backwards too. Meanwhile, Philipsen found open road and his best sprinting legs to take the stage honours and the overall lead of the race.

Results

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