Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) bookended the Baloise Belgium Tour with another victory, winning the opening and closing stages of the five day race that concluded in Brussels on Sunday.
Merlier came out of the final corner in fourth wheel and passed all of his rivals in the fast sprint to the finish line to take the stage 5 victory.
"It was not an easy one because the last corner was 300 metres to go, so position was really important. But after the flat tire for Bert [Van Lerberghe], Dries [Van Gestel] brought me into a really good position. I managed to take the last turn in the top three, and my sprint was enough today." Merlier said.
Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek) was the first to launch his sprint on the final straight but he was passed first by Merlier and then by Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who finished second, and Kim Heiduk (Indeos Grenadiers), who took third.
Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who started the day in the leader's jersey, finished safely in the bunch to secure the overall title at the 2025 Baloise Belgium Tour.
Baroncini won the race by four seconds ahead of Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) and seven seconds ahead of Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto).
How it unfolded
The final stage of the five-day Baloise Belgium Tour offered the peloton a 183.4km circuit race in and around Brussels. The field completed five laps of a larger circuit, with the Golden Kilometre positioned on the penultimate lap of racing.
The Golden Kilometre offered three sprints, separated by 500m each: one at the start, one at the middle, and one at the exit of the kilometre. These are for the benefit of general classification riders, offering 3, 2, and 1-second time bonuses.
It was a tight general classification battle separated by 10 seconds for the first four in the standings, and all to play for on the final day of racing.
The day's early breakaway included Dylan Vandenstorme (Team Flanders-Baloise), Michiel Hillen (Baloise Glowi Lions), Yorben Lauryssen (Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines), Jochem Kerckhaert (BEAT Cycling Club), Roy Hoogendoorn (Metec-SOLARWATT p/b Mantel) and Alex Vandenbulcke (Tarteletto-Isorex).
The gap to the six escapees was reduced to under a minute as teams Soudal-QuickStep, Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Tudor Cycling set a blistering pace in the closing 40km of the race.
Kerckhaert won all three sprints through the Golden Kilometre, which meant that those valuable seconds were no longer available for the riders battling it out for the general classification back in the main field.
Hillen and Vandenbulcke were the only two remaining inside 30km to go as Uno-X Mobility, Movistar and Soudal-QuickStep slashed their gap in half, but the field was all back together in the final 8km.
Several short-lived late-race attacks were caught in the closing kilometres of the race, and despite two crashes, the main peloton remained intact with two kilometres to go.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG led the field into the final corner with Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek), their sprinter Juan Sebastián Molano and Tim (Soudal-QuickStep) and Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers) were lined up and ready to sprint out onto the straightaway.
Teutenberg got the jump, but he faded in the last 100 metres as Merlier, Molano, and Heiduk sprinted past him for the podium spots.
Results
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