A sprint world championship in disguise: Renewi Tour draws stellar field

Running from August 19 to 23, the five day Renewi Tour is set for a series of fiercely contested sprints.

Merlier, Philipsen, Kooij and Milan are joined by Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility), Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team), Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermaché), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Tom Crabbe (Flanders-Baloise) according to HLN. 

Together, the ten sprinters have already collected 47 victories in 2026. Even more telling is their record on cycling’s biggest stage: every rider to win a conventional bunch sprint at this year’s Giro d’Italia or Tour de France is heading to Belgium. Magnier and Merlier both won three, while Milan, Kooij, Wærenskjold and Philipsen also claimed sprint victories.

The route explains part of the attraction.

Three stages, finishing in Diest, Ardooie and Bilzen, are expected to end in bunch sprints. The other two, in Geraardsbergen and Leuven, are tougher, but not necessarily beyond riders such as Philipsen, De Lie or Wærenskjold.

Last year offered a good indication of what to expect. Three stages ended in conventional bunch sprints, with Merlier winning twice and Kooij taking the other. The other two days ultimately decided the general classification, with Mathieu van der Poel winning in Geraardsbergen before Arnaud De Lie took the final stage in Leuven.

That victory in Leuven also handed De Lie the overall title after a remarkably tight battle with Van der Poel. The Belgian finished just three seconds ahead of the Dutchman, with Tim Wellens third at 31 seconds. De Lie will return to defend his title this year, while neither Van der Poel nor Wellens currently features on the preliminary start list.

Van der Poel, in particular, appears to have other priorities. The Renewi Tour overlaps with the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Les Gets, which runs from August 20 to 23, just one week before the elite cross country world title is decided in Val di Sole. Mountain biking has been one of Van der Poel’s major targets for the second half of the season.

One consequence of the exceptional sprint field at the Renewi Tour is that none of the leading fast men heading to Belgium will line up at the Vuelta a España, which starts in Monaco on August 22. 

The nature of the Spanish Grand Tour route is likely to have played a part in that decision, with relatively few straightforward opportunities for pure sprinters. That will leave the flatter stages to more versatile fast men such as Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan.