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

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.

From the start in Thuin there was an immediate attack by three rides, Johan Meens (Bingoal WB), Alex Colman (Flanders-Baloise) and Tord Gudmestad (Uno-X Pro Cycling). Only once did it appear there might be trouble for the trio, as Gudmestad having to stop for a flat tyre with 122km to go, but quickly rejoining the front group.

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. 

The early move paid off for the victory. The 23-year-old Belgian, who was third on stage 2, also moved into the points classification lead.

“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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