Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) accelerated past Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) on the final 200 metres of cobbles in Geraardsbergen and won stage 3 of the Renewi Tour. De Lie finished second for a second time in three days, with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) fading from the three-rider breakaway to take third, 12 seconds back.
Wellens led the trio on the final kilometre through the centre of Geraardsbergen. Once on the twisting uphill cobbles at the base of the Vesten, De Lie moved out of the saddle to lead the charge in the breakaway group, with Wellens distanced immediately with the force of the acceleration.
The young Belgian scored six bonus seconds with his runner-up finish, which boosted him into the GC lead, just one second ahead of Van der Poel. The stage winner started the day 10 seconds behind race leader Merlier, who is now third overall at 21 seconds back.
A four-time overall winner at the Renewi Tour, Wellens made the decisive acceleration with 33km to go and ignited the three-rider breakaway. He was looking for his first win on the Queen stage into Geraardsbergen, but was denied.
Van der Poel made his first move from the peloton with just under 100km to go, charging off the front when the gap to a lead group of 11 riders began to fade from three-and-a-half minutes to 2:45, using the presence of several punchy cobbled climbs and his favoured territory to make up the difference.
“I think it was a good moment. I wanted to make the race hard with the whole team, actually,” Van der Poel said about his long-range move. “And I think we succeeded in the end.”
The Renewi Tour is Van der Poel’s first race back since withdrawing after stage 15 of the Tour de France, suffering from pneumonia. He had won stage 2 of the Tour, wore the yellow jersey and earned two other…
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