Timo Kielich moves into GC lead at Tour de Wallonie with stage 3 victory

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Late sprint by young Belgian too much for Senechal and Consonni, who round off podium

MONTSAINTGUIBERT BELGIUM JULY 24 Timo Kielich of Belgium and Team AlpecinDeceuninck celebrates at finish line as stage winner during the 44th EthiasTour de Wallonie 2023 Stage 3 a 1868km stage from Thuin to MontSaintGuibert 140m on July 24 2023 in MontSaintGuibert Belgium Photo by Luc ClaessenGetty Images
Timo Kielich of Alpecin-Deceuninck wins massive sprint on stage 3 at Tour de Wallonie (Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
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Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won with room to spare in Mont-Saint-Guibert on stage 3 and took the overall lead at Tour de Wallonie on Monday.

Florian Sénéchal (Soudal-QuickStep) grabbed second place, just ahead of Simone Consonni (Cofidis) from the large bunch sprint.

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They stayed away for 137km and were picked up by the peloton before entering the local circuit at Mont-Saint-Guibert. Meens used his efforts to consolidate his white jersey lead in the mountain classification, 

The final circuit of 25km saw Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Ande Holter (Uno-X) attack, but the attempt to stay away lasted only 10km. The sprint teams positioned at the front headed to the final kilometre and with under 500 metres to go Kielich made a massive acceleration to the front. 

“It's really nice to win a stage in a ProSeries race. The last kilometers made the final difficult. We were still three riders at Alpecin-Deceuninck and one rider attacked. With Xandro [Meurisse], we were pushing hard until the last corner to catch up with him. I was able to continue my effort and I resisted until the line. This result proves that I have my place in the team,” Kielich said, saying that he did not expect to keep the orange leader’s jersey after the individual time trial on Tuesday.

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Jackie Tyson
Jackie Tyson
North American Editor

Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. On the bike, she has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast), and spends time on gravel around horse farms in north Georgia.

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