Ben Oliver scored Modern Adventure's first-ever win in Europe on stage 2 of the Tour de Wallonie, the New Zealander beating a host of bigger names to the line at the end of a grim stage to Libramont-Chevigny.
Lotto-Intermarché and NSN had controlled the peloton in the closing metres of the 191km stage to set things up for their fast finishers, Arnaud De Lie and Riley Sheehan.
However, it was Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe who set up the finishing sprint, with stage 1 winner Jordi Meeus the beneficiary of their lead out. But it wasn't to be for the Belgian, who was swamped in the final dash for the line.
He was up front alongside De Lie, Sheehan, Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar), Kim Heiduk (Necompany Ineos), and Sente Sentjens (Alpecin-Premier Tech) as the sprint was launched. But coming up the barriers was Oliver, who picked just the right spot – and the right time – to come through and speed to the win.
Behind him, Sheehan, Sentjens, and Meeus crossed the line in third, fourth, and fifth, while Yorben Lauryssen (Tartoletto-Isorex) was best of the rest, having followed Oliver up the barriers to grab second place.
As a result of the stage and countback results from stage 1, Oliver now moves into the orange jersey of race leader over Meeus.
"It feels unreal to get the first European win with the boys. We've been gelling all year and it's a wicked team to be a part of. To get a first win for the team over here is wicked," Oliver said after the stage.
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"It was like a long drag to the line, slightly uphill, and with pretty much no vision through the glasses with how wet it was. We just tried to stay together. Riley [Pickrell] and Paul [Wright] saved me with a kilometre to go when I unclipped with a bit of a collision. They got me back in, so I had to finish it off for them.
"To be honest, we came here just looking for a stage win. We've been knocking on the door all year in Europe to get a win and then we play it day-by-day.
"We had the boss man George [Hincapie] here for the first two days, so we had to get a win for him early on."
A second sprint finish in two days at the Tour de Wallonie had been on the cards from the outset of the stage from Jodoigne.
Six men still went up the road though, with Asbjøn Hellemose (Jayco-AlUla), joined in the breakaway by Anton Lennemann (Bike Aid), Matteo Malotte (Color Code-Alu Center), Matthew Kingston (Kg.K Vis-Costruzioni e Ambiente), Iben Rommelaere (Tartoletto-Isorex), and Kévin Avoine (Van Rysel-Roubaix).
Of course, they wouldn't make it to the finish, with Kingston and Lennemann the first two to drop with just over 80km to run. The remainder of the move kept going until the 40km mark before more dropped back, leaving just Avoine.
The Frenchman managed to survive until 24km to go, at which point the sprinter's teams – a mix of squads, including Red Bull, NSN, Lotto, and Netcompany Ineos – took over.
From there, it was those teams – plus Jayco-AlUla and Alpecin-Premier Tech – who worked on the front, and despite a handful of attacks at the 11km mark, it was all set for the finishing sprint in the heavy rain.
Oliver in the leader's orange jersey following stage 2 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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