Baloise Belgium Tour: Ghys beats Evenepoel to win stage 1

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Robbe Ghys (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) won the opening stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour in a three-man ahead of Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Gianni Marchand (Tarteletto-Isorex). 

Evenepoel had seemed absolutely nailed-on for victory, having spent virtually the entire final two laps of a hilly finishing circuit setting the pace while Ghys and Marchand barely managed to hang on, but was outdone in the sprint by Ghys. 

Strangely, Evenepoel decided to wait for the sprint rather than drop Ghys and Marchand during the hilly final circuit, despite the pair appearing to be on the limit having spent all the day out front as a result of being part of the day’s break.

Evenepoel nevertheless takes the overall lead, having claimed maximum bonus seconds at the golden kilometre.

Evenepoel first attacked out of the peloton 30km from the finish with Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka Assos), and was not seen by them again. The pair picked up and dropped all the remnants of the day’s break until just Ghys and Marchand were left. 

Although Evenepoel remonstrated with the others to help take some turns, their lack of any assistance seemed more a case of not being able to rather than not wanting to, and Campenaerts was dropped on the penultimate climb of the day after suffering from what appeared to be a cramp.

By appearance alone, it looked as though Evenepoel had plenty left in the tank on the final climbs compared with Ghys and Marchand, yet didn’t make a decisive attack to drop them in the finale, even when he inadvertently opened up a small gap after Ghys misjudged a corner. He paid for failing to do so, as Ghys mugged him at the finish to claim victory. 

“It was very hard,” said the winner at the finish. “The moment Remco [Evenepoel] came to the front, I had one job: follow his wheel, and maybe try to stick to it until the end and try to do a sprint. 

“It was a hard moment when Remco went full gas at the top [of the last climb], but I stayed on his wheel and had confidence in my sprint, and that was the plan.”

How it unfolded

Featuring a hilly finale in the Flemish Ardennes, stage one of the Baloise Belgium Tour was expected to be a crucial day in the race for overall victory. 

The 15.5km circuit in Maarkedal was to be tackled three times in the race’s finale, and featured three small climbs: Fortstraat, Ellestraat and Berg ten Houte. The route was mostly flat prior to arriving at that circuit, allowing a five-man group to go clear at the flag.

The break of the day was: Ghys, Tom Wirtgen (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles), Thijs Aerts (Baloise-Trek Lions), Yoeri Havik (Beat Cycling) and Jan-Willem van Schip (Beat Cycling).

They were shortly joined by Marchand, Arne Marit (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), and Julien Van den Brande (Tarteletto-Isorex), who together formed the eight-man group that spent the first part of the stage out front. 

Deceuninck-QuickStep, Lotto-Soudal, Qhubeka Assos and Alpecin-Fenix all helped control things at the front of the peloton to ensure the gap never rose to four minutes, although whether they were working for their sprinters, puncheurs or GC men was unclear. 

Little happened for much of the day, although Bora-Hansgrohe’s sprinter and leader Pascal Ackermann was among several riders to go down in a crash, which also saw Dietmar Ledegen (Baloise-Trek Lions) have to abandon the race. 

As the leaders reached the circuit in Maarkedal and crossed the finish line for the first time, they’re gap was down to 1:52.

Lotto-Soudal upped the pace once the peloton arrived at the circuit, and despite the gentleness of the gradient, DSM’s sprinter Cees Bol was dropped on the Fortstraat. Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos) was the next top sprinter to be dropped, although his problem was with his bike rather than with his legs. 

The break began to split up on the first ascent of the hardest of the three climbs, Berg ten Houte, and the stragglers began to get caught by the fast-approaching peloton. Only Wirtgen, Ghys, Marchand and Van Schip remained out front. 

Remco Evenepeol launched his first attack on that climb, taking a few big names with him including Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels) and Victor Campenaerts.

He accelerated again shortly after beginning the second lap, at 29km to go, and this time only Campenaerts followed. The pair pulled out a gap over the peloton, and picked up Wirtgen and Marchand, who were dropped out of the leading quartet, and later Ghys and Van Schip, with 22km to go.

Back in the peloton, Philippe Gilbert attacked, going clear with Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep), while causing his own teammate Caleb Ewan to be one of several riders to be dropped. Gilbert pressed on to chase the leaders, but was frustrated by the presence of Ballerini, who was on marking duties for his leader Evenepoel out ahead. 

Gilbert did manage to shed Ballerini on the second ascent of Berg ten Houte, but was himself swallowed up by what was by now a very reduced peloton. 

Evenepoel was doing all the work in the lead group, single-handedly extending the lead over the chasing peloton to over 30 seconds, and the others barely managed to cling on, with only Campenaerts, Ghys and Marchand left by the beginning of the final lap. 

No-one dared pass his wheel during the golden kilometre, where Evenepoel was able to pick up nine bonus seconds by crossing the three successive intermediate sprints in first. Campenaerts stuck to his wheel for second-place on each, meaning he picked up six seconds. 

Evenepoel was still annoyed at the lack of help from the others, at one point throwing his arms up in the air in a gesture of exasperation. But he was soon rid of his main rival, Campenaerts, who pulled up with what looked to be a cramp on the final climb of Ellestraat. 

Alpecin-Fenix hadn’t given up the chase in the peloton, and took over from Lotto-Soudal (who had taken control after Gilbert had been caught) at the front of the peloton, but the leaders still retained a lead of around 30 seconds.

They were unable to make any inroads, however, although their rider Jasper Philipsen did at lead win the sprint for fourth in the peloton, who arrived at the finish 28 seconds down on the leading trio.

Evenepoel will now look to extend his overall lead in tomorrow’s 11.2km individual time trial at Knokke-Heist.