De Lie snatches Renewi Tour GC win from Van der Poel with last-gasp sprint
The Lotto rider appeared out of energy in the final lap around Leuven and lost the virtual GC lead to Mathieu van der Poel on the bonus sprint, but De Lie was brilliant in in the sprint to take the day and the overall.
Arnaud De Lie won a spectacular final stage of the Renewi Tour in Leuven on Sunday, with the victory confirming his win in the general classification ahead of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
The Lotto rider came from nowhere to snatch the stage win, catching a late move on the line. The stage victory gave him 10 bonus seconds, four more than Van der Peol, who finished second. Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) was third on the stage.
Van der Poel had looked set to take the overall taking maximum points on the first sprint in the race’s Green Kilometre 20km from the line and overhauling his one-second GC deficit. but in a hugely dramatic final kilometre it was De Lie’s sprint that won the day.
De Bondt almost took the stage win, the ever aggressive Belgian attacking what remained of the bunch just inside the final kilometre. However, De Lie was brilliantly positioned and able to open his sprint down the right side of the road just after Van der Poel launched his own move, with the pair overhauling De Bondt in the closing 20 metres.
Van der Poel had appeared in control all day long, making moves on some of the climbs on the closing circuits, while De Lie was appeared out of teammates and seemingly out of energy, but he held his position to take only the second win of his season.
How it unfolded
The final stage of this year’s Renewi Tour saw the race return to the scene of the 2021 World Championships, the race concluding with a 184.7km stage starting and finishing in Leuven. The stage was lumpy throughout, with 1,613m of climbing, but the closing circuits around town which tacked many of the same short, punchy climbs of the worlds, made for an aggressive final.
Arnaud De Lie started the day only one second ahead of Mathieu van der Poel and he would need to defend that over 28 Flemish bergs.
After an aggressive opening 30km, Eoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) got away and was soon joined by Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise) and Lithuanian champion Aivaras Mikutis (Tudor), the four men taking a lead approaching three minutes into the closing 120km.
However, as they began a second large loop east of the city, the advantage began to drop and, as they headed back into the city, the lead was only 15 seconds, Bahrain Victorious leading the peloton over the Kratenberg with 64km of the race remaining.
However, no one seemed to want to close the final few seconds and the gap drifted out again, the break only caught when Mike Teunissen (XDS Astana) led a move of a handful of riders on ascent of Keizersberg, the race exploding on the double digit gradients, the entering its final 50km. Astana clearly weren’t finished and Alberto Bettiol put in a savage effort when Teunissen was caught. Next in the queue of attacking Astana riders was Davide Ballerini, heading up the road with Axel Heuns (Unibet-Tietma Rockets) and getting a gap the peloton seemed happy with.
Van der Poel made his move on the Wijnpers climb with 34km to go, but with De Lie on his wheel, the former world champion eased off the pace. Ballerini pressed on alone, crossing the line with the slimmest of leads with two 14.5km laps to go. Van der Poel’s sprint on the Green Kilometre brought Ballerini back and formed a dangerous group of five off the front, but when they were caught as the last lap began a reduced bunch sprint seemed inevitable, though the result only became clear on the line.
