Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) won stage 3 of the Renewi Tour with a canny attack from the break just over a kilometre from the finish in Geraardsbergen, while Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) moved into the overall lead after placing second on the stage.
Alex Zingle (Cofidis) took third ahead of Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), while Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) produced a late effort to seize fifth.
Wellens’ display was all the more remarkable given that he spent much of the final 30km riding with a slow puncture, but the Belgian’s haul of bonus seconds was enough to put him into the race lead, 17 seconds ahead of Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep).
Wellens ignited the race with his aggression on the finishing circuit, attacking on the last time up the Muur van Geraardsbergen at the end of the penultimate lap. He led alone into the Green Kilometre, picking up eight bonus seconds, though his progress was stalled by that slow puncture, with Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) bridging across on the Bosberg while Lampaert, Hirschi, Zingle, Teunissen, Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny) and Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) joined shortly afterwards.
“I felt super good, and after the first passage on the Muur I told a teammate that I had the legs to win. But when I rode away after the Muur, I felt I had a flat tyre,” said Wellens, who was saved by sealant on his tubeless tyre. “I hesitated about getting a change, but I knew that I would not return to the first group. In the end it was the right choice.”
Wellens’ teammate Hirschi attacked fiercely on the climb of Denderoordstraat, splitting the front group in two, with only Wright, Wellens and Zingle able to follow, but the group reformed over the other side with 3km to go.
The final kilometres brought the race through Geraardsbergen, with the finish line on the Vesten, the climb that serves as the anteroom to the Muur proper. Teunissen knew that his prospects of overpowering Wellens et al on the climb were slim, and so he launched a sharp attack with 1200m remaining, immediately opening what proved the winning gap.
Hirschi set off in lone pursuit beneath the flamme rouge, but he couldn’t quite get on terms. As the gradient bit in the final metres, Wellens unleashed his effort, seemingly unconcerned by his soft front tyre, but he had to settle for second place ahead of Zingle, while De Lie surged from the chasing group to take fifth.
The day belonged to Teunissen, however, who marked his 31st birthday by claiming his first WorldTour victory since he won the opening stage of the 2019 Tour de France in Brussels.
The two laps of the 33km circuit around Geraardsbergen were always going to prove decisive, but that didn’t stop Arne Marit (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Jens Reynders (Israel-Premier Tech), Milan Fretin (Flanders-Baloise), Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) and Lukasz Wisniowski (EF Education-EasyPost) from forging clear in the opening kilometres and building a maximum lead of three minutes.
Teunissen was among the aggressors who bridged up to the leaders on the first lap of the finishing circuit, though the high speed in the peloton meant the move was destined to peter out. Indeed, the combination of the intensity of the racing and the relentless of the terrain saw the peloton quickly whittled down, with overnight leader Josh Tarling (Ineos) among those distanced with 38km to go, ahead of the final, full ascent of the Muur.
Wellens emerged as the strongman on its slopes, as he attacked with an eye to the bonus seconds in the Green Kilometre that followed, and not even a flat tyre would deny him his bounty. The Belgian has 17 seconds on Lampaert and 19 on Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) and Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) ahead of the weekend’s grand finale.
“I knew that the time trial yesterday was going to be very important for the general classification, so I really worked hard on that,” Wellens said. “That has paid off. Now we should not underestimate the last stage in this race, there is still danger there.”
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