BinckBank Tour: Van der Poel takes overall title

By published

Dutch champion rides solo from 50km to win final stage

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GERAARDSBERGEN BELGIUM OCTOBER 03 Mathieu Van Der Poel of The Netherlands and Team AlpecinFenix Breakaway during the 16th BinckBank Tour 2020 Stage 5 a 1836km stage from Ottignies Louvain la Neuve to Muur van Geraardsbergen 108m BinckBankTour BinckBankTour on October 03 2020 in Geraardsbergen Belgium Photo by Luc ClaessenGetty Images
On the 183.6km stage 5, Mathieu Van Der Poel of Alpecin-Fenix was focused on the stage win(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) staged an enormous coup in the BinckBank Tour, winning the final stage in Geraardsbergen and taking the overall victory ahead of Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) with Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) in third overall.

After pulling a group away, Van der Poel then attacked again on the second trip over the Muur and went solo with 50km to go.

Behind, Pedersen succumbed when Kragh Andersen attacked on the final ascent with 16km to go and the Dane, together with Küng, Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain McLaren) tried to chase down the Dutch champion.

However, Van der Poel swept up the Golden Kilometre time bonus with 11km to go to seal the overall victory and solo to the stage win, three seconds ahead of Naesen with Colbrelli in third.

"It is incredible that I won the BinckBank Tour", Van der Poel said. "I had started for the win, but after yesterday's time trial I didn't expect that anymore."

Van der Poel said attacking that far out was not his plan, "It was way too early," he said. But he felt that the group wasn't working and decided to go on the climb.

"And suddenly I was alone. For a moment I hesitated, because it was still far to the finish, but in the end I played all or nothing."

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Brief Results
Pos.Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix 4:07:38
2Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R la Mondiale 0:00:03
3Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain McLaren 0:00:05
4Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
5Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:09
6Dimitri Claeys (Bel) Cofidis 0:00:47
7Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:00:50
8Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 0:01:08
9Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:12
10Florian Senechal (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:01:13
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Final general classification
Pos.Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix
2Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
3Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
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