Binche-Chimay-Binche: Jordi Meeus wins in reduced bunch sprint

Local speedster Jordi Meeus has won a fast and furious edition of Binche-Chimay-Binche, a last blast across the Belgian semi-Classic's final sector of cobbles, taking the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter to the 15th victory of his career.

Meeus zipped down the left-hand side of the barriers in Binche to stave off Nils Eekhoff (Picnic-PostNL) and former Binche winner Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) to raise his arms for the first time since the Copenhagen Classic in June.

After one leading pre-race favourite and defending champion, Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), did not take part due to sickness, and another, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceunink), was caught in a second group behind when the peloton split mid-race, the other sprinters' teams pushed hard for their own chance to shine.

When the last trio of breakaway riders, including Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), was caught with 10 kilometres to go, the sprint in Belgium's last race of the 2025 season became all but inevitable, and despite Groupama-FDJ's best efforts, Meeus was perfectly placed for a short but powerful acceleration to a clear victory.

How it unfolded

After Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) got the ball rolling with an early move on a chilly but dry day in southern Belgium, the sprinters' team did an excellent job of ensuring that none of the breaks in the first half of the race managed to stick.

It was only long after the peloton had begun the return leg from Chimay back to Binche that a really promising move emerged, containing Alec Segaert (Lotto), Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), US racer and former Paris-Tours winner Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility).

The move demanded so much pace-setting behind, in fact, it actually split the peloton as the race roared back to Binche and for the first of five local laps. The five-man break was not so strong enough to stay away for more than 20 kilometres, but the speed of the chase was such that there was one crucial development: as a result of the split, top favourite Jasper Philipsen was missing from the running.

After one ferociously fast lap, presumably to try and keep Philipsen at bay in the second group, a three-rider move did claw its way clear in the shape of Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and local ProTeam racer Dylan Vandenstorme (Flanders-Baloise).

Bjerg's well-known TT-ing skills put to good use by the Swiss racer to try to maintain their margin, but equally, memories of De Lie's sprint victory in Binche in 2024, not to mention the absence of Philipsen and De Lie, all helped keep squads with fastmen like Israel, TotalEnergies, Picnic-PostNL and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe chasing on the front.

The loss of a fading Vandenstorme didn't deter Bjerg and Thierry from plugging away, and as the absence of Philipsen became more and more definitive, their advantage stabilised a little. With two laps to go, the two had a 20-second margin over a bunch by a seemingly indefatigable Campenaerts, first in the breaks for Visma-Lease a Bike and now powering away on the front.

An unexpected development materialised when Andreas Stokbro (Unibet Tietema Rockets) bridged across around 14 kilometres from the line, and his arrival briefly breathed new life into the break. But it also pushed the bunch to react more sharply as well, and Visma's added assistance to the chase with Campenaerts ultimately proved fatal for the three.

With UAE one of the few big-name teams lacking a sprinter, once Bjerg was caught, Politt went for it again. It was to no avail, though, as despite having limited leadout trains, Israel-Premier Tech, Bora and Visma were all keen to place their fastmen in as good a position as possible on the two sections of cobbles in the finale.

TotalEnergies were very much in control on one winding section of the finishing circuit as it took the bunch under a perilously narrow railway bridge, then on an exposed, very fast downhill across the last segment of countryside, Groupama-FDJ took over, too.

The TV coverage briefly panned back to Adrian Petit (Intermarché-Wanty) as the French veteran and former under-23 World Championships silver medallist rode his last ever race, smiling at his fans as he ended a 15-year career off the back of the bunch. But when it moved back to the head of the pack, Groupama-FDJ were still very much at it, blasting past the team buses parked on each side of the road and insisting on their consistently high pace as the race careered onto the second last segment of cobbles close to Binche city centre.

Meeus was still sixth or seventh man back when the race shot into the final kilometre, with leadout man Danny van Poppel, stuck on the far side of the bunch, helpless to assist him. However, it didn't really matter as the powerfully built former stage winner across the cobbles of the Champs Elysées in the Tour proved he was equally at home on the pave of Binche in the closing metres, first tracking Uno-X rider Abrahamsen closely all the way up the slightly rising finale, then powering through for a perfectly timed victory by nearly a bike length.

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