Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) shot to victory on stage 4 of the Renewi Tour, outpacing Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease A Bike) in Aalter at the end of a lightning-fast day on the bike.
The Belgian led home a vastly reduced front group, with the peloton having been decimated by a mass crash just outside the final kilometre of the 178.5km stage.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) rounded out the podium, but out front, it was Philipsen who sped to a clear win with few real rivals at the line.
On a pan-flat stage, the third sprint finish of the race was always an inevitability, and so it proved once the final breakaway survivor Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was caught 8km from the finish.
Sprinter's teams including Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, and Lotto-Dstny battled for control of the peloton over the closing kilometres of a stage which was run at an average of near 49kph.
The stage did eventually get its closing sprint finish, though not exactly as many of the teams had planned it. A coming together near the front of the peloton just outside the flamme rouge meant that the bulk of the lead group was ruled out of the sprint.
While several sprinters and their trains were heavily disrupted, Alpecin-Deceuninck's lead-out remained largely intact, and so the team were able to launch Philipsen to a clear victory ahead of Laporte and De Lie.
Double stage winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), meanwhile, was out of contention in the final, the Italian settling for eighth place at the finish.
How it unfolded
Stage 4 of the Renewi Tour would take the peloton on a 178.5km flat run from Oostburg to Aalter, crossing the Netherlands-Belgium border east of Bruges and not too far away from the North Sea.
Despite there being no hills to speak of during the stage, there would still be some challenges to encounter, namely the risk of crosswinds blowing.
It would take around 20km of racing before a breakaway established itself off the front, with a seven-man group going clear on the local lap around Oostburg.
Jack Rootkin-Gray (EF Education-EasyPost) and Ayco Bastiaens (Soudal-QuickStep) were joined out front by Simon Pellaud (Tudor), Luca De Meester (Bingoal WB), Alex Colman (Flanders-Baloise), and Jordy Bouts (TDT-Unibet) as the group took two minutes on the peloton.
Back in the main group, the wind struck, splitting it up several times before it came back as one as the race entered Belgium with 120km to go.
The high speeds that marked the start of the stage didn't slow then, either, with the peloton chasing down the break as the race early on first of the two 47km finishing laps.
With 80km to go, Stefan De Bod (EF Education-EasyPost) launched a counter move, beginning a new breakaway as Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), and Luca Van Boven (Bingoal WB) went along for the ride. Bert Van Lerberghe (Soudal-QuickStep), Jan Maas (Jayco-AlUla), and Alex Colman (Flanders-Baloise) made it six out front shortly afterwards, while Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek controlled behind.
The break held an advantage of 40 seconds as they began the final lap, though their time out front was numbered as the sprint squads closed in. At 12km to go, almost all of the riders in the move were brought back, leaving just De Bondt battling on solo.
The Belgian persevered into the final 10km, but he was forced to accept the inevitable 8km out, leaving the sprinter's teams up to command the final. Alpecin and Lidl were once again prominent at the front as the likes of Intermarché-Wanty, and Visma-Lease A Bike joined them in the pacemaking.
After a lull in the speed, it shot back up once again as the riders headed for the final kilometres, with the big sprint teams continuing in control at the front. All was set for a showdown between Alpecin and Lidl, though a mass crash at the least opportune time put paid to that, leaving a skeleton peloton to contest the win, and Philipsen to speed through and take the 50th win of his career.
Results
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