Oliver Knight (Cofidis) claimed a hard-fought victory from a late, three-man breakaway that narrowly held off the sprinting peloton on stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de Wallonie.
The result was the 24-year-old's first pro victory ahead of escape companions Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) and Louis Rouland (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
Race leader Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) finished in the peloton just behind, but Knight, fourth on the opening stage, moved to the top of the standings.
"It's a completely crazy scenario. I hadn't won since my amateur years and the longer it goes on, the more you lose that great feeling of victory," Knight said.
"I sometimes thought that the level was too high, that I wouldn't make it... Today was a difficult race with bad weather, rain. The final was stressful, you had to be in the right tempo, respond to the riders' attacks. I really tried to hang on until the end and at the end, I still had a little energy left to sprint at full speed.
"I've been through some tough times with falls, illnesses... They say that difficult times make you stronger, I think I can testify to that. Now, we're going to try to fight to keep this first place in the general classification. And then we'll do everything to help Milan (Fretin) win in a sprint!"
It was a tougher than expected 153.1 kilometre stage from Huy to Sambreville, and a very aggressive start to the day with numerous attacks.
The day's early breakaway took a long time to form, but when it finally did after 40 kilometres of racing, five riders made the move: Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Filippo Magli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Ceriel Desal (Wagner Bazin WB), Olivier Godfroid (Baloise Glowi Lions) and Alessandro Borgo (Bahrain Victorious).
The five riders gained over three minutes before slowly losing that advantage. As the race hit the local circuits, the gap fell rapidly to around a minute. They had only a handful of seconds with one lap and 30km to go, and soon a counter-attack from the peloton peeled away.
Eight riders made it across to the five ahead, but there wasn't enough organisation. A crash in the peloton with 24km to go disrupted the chase, but the pressure was soon back on to reel in the escapees.
From that group, Louis Rouland (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) attacked, then Oliver Knight (Cofidis) scrambled across. Alexis Brunel (TotalEnergies) tried to bridge but didn't have enough in the tank to make it, leaving three riders ahead as the rest were caught by the peloton.
The trio still had 25 seconds with 6km to go, and when they still had 20 seconds inside 2km to go, their hopes of contesting the stage win rose significantly.
Knight opened up the sprint and had the line in sight just as the chasing bunch caught them, and the Briton managed to take his first pro win.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
