Large part of peloton misdirected just before final kilometer in Tour of Wallonia, Meeus sprints to victory

Only one day after the Tour de France ended, the cycling calendar continues. On Sunday, during the Tour time trial, the participants of the Tour of Wallonia were presented in Tournai, where the peloton also officially started on Monday. Nine WorldTour teams found their way to the Walloon race, as well as the well-known cyclo-cross teams. Title defender Filippo Ganna is not participating, as he aims for the Olympic time trial title on Saturday.

From the start, a breakaway group of three riders got away, consisting of Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X), Michiel Lambrecht (Bingoal WB) and Kenay De Moyer (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal). Tudor and Lotto-Dstny were among the teams controlling this breakaway, knowing that the cobblestone sections in the final provided an opportunity for stronger teams to make a difference.

At 52 kilometers from the end, the trio was caught, following which a new race situation was initiated by the Alpecin-Deceuninck Austrian Tobias Bayer. He was accompanied by a very strong group, including Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Trek Lions), Rune Herregodts (Intermarché-Wanty), Benoit Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R) and teammate Tibor del Grosso.

The peloton clearly did not agree with this and did everything to reel in the dozen riders, which succeeded. Trentin and Cosnefroy, along with Mick van Dijke of Visma | Lease a Bike, did not give up easily. Meanwhile, there were numerous punctures in the back, affecting riders like Jasper De Buyst, Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny) and Matias Louvel (Arkéa - B&B Hotels).

Approaching the final climb of the day, the Petit Try, ten kilometers from the finish, the peloton developed a very high speed. On the 1.2-kilometer climb, which averages 7.2 percent, Uno-X pushed hard in service of their leader Markus Hoelgaard. He remained in a group of six, including Van Dijke, Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny), Alex Kirsch (Lidl-Trek), Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) and Frederik Wandahl (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).

However, this group was also unable to maintain their lead until the end, making a sprint finish increasingly likely. In the last three kilometers, the sprint trains began to form, including a strong Visma | Lease a Bike and Israel-Premier Tech. A large part of the peloton was misdirected just before the final kilometer, causing a crash involving Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Dstny) and Carlos Canal (Movistar).

Groupama-FDJ managed to get their sprint train back on track, but it was Meeus who, like a jack-in-the-box, sprinted to victory with his full power. Madis Mikhels finished second for Intermarché-Wanty, and Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) finished third, ahead of Van Dijke.