UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Tim Wellens soloed to victory in the men's Belgian national championships road race, attacking riders including Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) 41km from the finish to claim the title.
It was an attritional, 230km race starting and finishing in Binche, in what is considered one of the hardest and most prestigious national championships. In the last 50km, a small leading group emerged, from which Wellens attacked, and no one could react.
Despite its length, the 230km men's race was attacking and aggressive from the gun, with big-name riders and various breakaways getting involved in the first half of the race, though no clear breakaway of the day went – no one wanted to risk letting a group go that would have to be chased down.
Despite the calibre of riders who didn't make the split – like Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) – the second group seemed to be defeated fairly quickly, and the front group built up a solid lead.
Finally, as the riders were tiring, Wellens attacked at just the right moment with 41km to go, and when Evenepoel didn't immediately react, the UAE rider had the momentum to go solo, and he would not be caught again. The gap was never huge, but the chasing group disintegrated – partly thanks to Vermeersch's interference for his teammate – instead of working together, allowing Wellens to solo to the win.
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