Dries Devenyns wins Belgium Tour 2016
Dries Devenyns and Reto Hollenstein doubled-up for IAM Cycling in the overall standings. The two riders on the Swiss professional team came in first and second place, respectively, at the Baloise Belgium Tour.
“I’m disappointed we missed out on getting third place too,” directeur sportif Lionel Marie joked once the peloton crossed the finish line. This is in fact the second time this season that IAM Cycling riders took two podium positions in the overall at a race after Leigh Howard and Aleksejs Saramotins had accomplished this feat at the Clasica Almeria in February.
The peloton delayed the start of the stage by five minutes this morning in Tremelo. They wanted to show their support for Stig Broeckx (Lotto Soudal) who is still in a coma following a crash on Saturday. And then, equally importantly, they want to open a dialogue with the UCI, the race organizers, and the professional peloton. Their goal ultimately is to take concrete measures to ensure the safety of the riders in all races.
Rain was falling and as the final stage finished with three laps of a lumpy 18.8km circuit in Tongeren, there was a chance that the sprint stage would be tougher than expected.
That’s exactly how it turned out and this allowed Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin) to take his first professional victory. Having made it into the relatively small group that arrived at the finish, he came off the Bora-Argon 18 train and convincingly held off Daniel McLay (Fortuneo – Vital Conept) and Timothy Dupont (Verandas Willems) to open his account.
Dries Devenyns could not help feeling very introspective when called to the podium on Sunday. “It’s all very confusing. I am happy to have my victory, but I’m not completely happy,” Devenyns confided. “I don’t feel like I am coming away as a carefree winner. All my thoughts are with Stig Broeckx. What happened yesterday is very serious. I cannot rejoice in my victory under these circumstances.”
Belgium Tour 2016 – stage 4 results (Tremelo – Tongeren):
| 1 | Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin) |
3:34:08 |
| 2 | Daniel Mclay (Fortuneo – Vital Concept) |
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| 3 | Timothy Dupont (Veranda’s Willems) |
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| 4 | Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie Bruxelles) |
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| 5 | Shane Archbold (Bora – Argon 18) |
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| 6 | Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
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| 7 | Niki Terpstra (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
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| 8 | Michel Kreder (Roompot – Oranje Peloton) |
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| 9 | Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise) |
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| 10 | Julien Vermote (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
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Final general classification:
| 1 | Dries Devenyns (IAM) |
12:27:30 |
| 2 | Reto Hollenstein (IAM) |
+04” |
| 3 | Stijn Vandenbergh (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
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| 4 | Sergei Chernetckii (Katusha) |
+16” |
| 5 | Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie Bruxelles) |
+18” |
| 6 | Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
+20” |
| 7 | Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise) |
+23” |
| 8 | Wout Van Aert (Crelan – Vastgoedservice) |
+39” |
| 9 | Yves Lampaert (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+43” |
| 10 | Niki Terpstra (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
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