Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) struck back to win stage 2 of the Baloise Belgium Tour, triumphing in the mass sprint finish at the end of the 194.4km race.
The Belgian scored his second win of the 2025 season in Putte, having missed out on the sprint on Wednesday’s opening stage after almost going down in a crash at the finish.
He outpaced Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jenno Berkmoes (Lotto) to the finish line of stage 2 with opening day winner Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) not challenging for the top spot.
Molano leads Philipsen by a single second heading into stage 3's 9.7km time trial to Ham. Merlier lies third overall, two seconds down, while Berckmoes is in fourth overall at five seconds down.
How it Unfolded
Stage 2 of the Baloise Belgium Tour would bring the peloton on another flat stage as riders tackled 194.4km from Beringen to Putte, including four laps of a closing circuit in the finishing town.
With a fast start at a 50kph average speed, it would take almost 40km for the break of the day to jump away at the front.
A six-man move went clear, with four Belgians, Alex Colman (Flanders-Baloise), Luca De Meester (Wagner Bazin WB), Maarten Verheyen (Baloise Glowi Lions), and Kenay De Moyer (Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines), joined by Dutch duo Marijn Maas (Beat Cycling Club) and Casper van der Woude (Metec-Solarwatt p/b Mantel).
As Soudal-QuickStep settled into working at the head of the peloton on behalf of stage 1 winner and race leader Tim Merlier, the break raced up the road to a three-minute advantage.
Alpecin-Deceuninck, working for Jasper Philipsen, also joined in the pacemaking, limited the six leaders to a two-minute advantage heading into the four laps of the finishing circuits.
The day's breakaway of Alex Colman (Flanders-Baloise), Luca De Meester (Wagner Bazin WB), Maarten Verheyen (Baloise Glowi Lions), and Kenay De Moyer (Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Just over 50km from the finish, following the 1km cobbled sector, the Peulisbaan, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Philipsen made a move at the front, splitting the peloton with around 30 riders breaking off at the front.
Philipsen was joined by Merlier as well as GC hopefuls Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) as the lead group swallowed up the breakaway with 45km to run. Soon after, the chasing group came across too, bringing the entire peloton back together.
Counter-attacks swiftly followed as Olivier Godfroid (Baloise Glowi Lions) and Axel van der Tuuk (Metec-Solarwatt p/b Mantel) went clear, taking a 10-second lead, with Wessel Mouris (Unibet Tietema Rockets) coming across later on at the 30km mark.
By the penultimate passage through the finish line at 25km to go, just ahead of the golden kilometres, the trio had built a 40-second lead. The breakaway trio shared the bonus seconds among themselves at the three golden kilometre sprints, while back in the peloton, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal-QuickStep continued to work in the chase.
Other teams, including UAE Team Emirates-XRG also hit the front, while the trio out front continued with a 30-second lead heading into the final 10km. They hit the final run over the Peulisbaan, 7km out, with a 15-second advantage as Uno-X Mobility pulled behind.
That gap swiftly evaporated, with the peloton making the catch and splitting once again 5km from home. Uno-X rider Adne Holter seized a chance to attack from the 40-man lead group a kilometre later.
He was brought back at 2km to go, just as Ineos Grenadiers brought their man Ganna back to the front, ready for a full peloton to contest the final. Come the closing sprint, it was Molano who hit the front first. However, Philipsen got his timing right, jumping into the wind at the right moment to push past the Colombian and speed through for the win.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including Cycling Weekly and Rouleur.
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