Renewi Tour 2026 – Stage 5 [FULL STAGE]

August 23, 2026

21st Renewi Tour 2026 🇧🇪 (2.UWT) ME – Stage 5 – Leuven – Leuven : 183,7 km

Renewi Tour is a UCI WorldTour stage race run over flat and rolling Benelux terrain, where wind, narrow roads, technical city finishes, and short cobbled or punchy sectors can turn an apparently controlled day into a selective one. The course often lacks major climbs, but repeated accelerations, exposed farmland roads, and fast transitions demand constant attention and strong team organization. Riders must manage crosswinds, stay near the front through roundabouts and junctions, and be ready for late positioning battles on the flatter stages. Race dynamics frequently center on sprint teams, time bonuses, and opportunistic moves on the short rises or during windy sections, while stronger classics riders look for hard racing to wear down the pure fast men. Typical stage profiles include flat openings, rolling middle sections, and technical finishes that reward both power and precision. The finishing style can range from a bunch sprint to a reduced-group contest or late breakaway, depending on how much the wind and terrain have split the field. It is a race of timing, control, and resilience.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) dominated the final stage of the Renewi Tour to confirm his overall title, covering every move from his rivals in a tricky final 10km, before freestyling in the sprint to win at a canter in Leuven.

As several attacks were launched in the run for home, Philipsen stayed calm in the blue and green leader’s jersey, making sure he was never far from the wheel of closest overall challenger Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto Intermarché), whose big attack in the final 6km failed to distance his compatriot.

An all-out day of racing and a crash in the last 2km meant that Philipsen was without a lead-out in the last kilometre, with Uno-X Mobility trying to steal a march with a late solo burst from Carl-Frederik Bévort.

However, Philipsen always seemed in control, popping out of the bunch early to launch his sprint, storming into Bévort’s wheel and slingshotting out of his slipstream to claim a hat-trick of stage wins and the GC title.

Following him for second were Luca Mozzato (Tudor) and Mike Teunissen (XDS Astana), but neither were close to challenging the dominant overall winner, who celebrated across the finish line.

“It’s quite unique to take the WorldTour stage race win, so it’s something which I never achieved in the past,” said Philipsen after taking only his second pro stage race title and first at WorldTour level.

“It’s an honour to win here as well; also, it’s my home country, so it was a week to remember and a nice one for the team.

“Every win is important. We just try to give everything from the start of the season to the end. I’m happy with the condition now after the Tour; it’s much, much better than I even hoped for. I’m just going to enjoy this victory together with the team.”

An attacking day in and around Leuven
The final stage of the Renewi Tour kicked off from Leuven, where the riders would also finish after 183.7km of racing around the host of the 2021 World Championships. A two-man early breakaway of Frederik Frison (Pinarello Q36.5) and Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious) attacked up the road from kilometre zero to get the action started.

They led by 2:45 over the peloton, with a group of four chasers soon making it up to the leading duo: Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek), Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Dries De Bondt (Jayco AlUla) and Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Rose Rockets), to make it six in the lead.

When they joined together with 70km to go, the urgency went up in the peloton, with NSN and Decathlon CMA CGM working tirelessly to try and bring back a 2:11 lead heading into the final 50km.

With 25km to go and not much changing in terms of action, the six-man breakaway remained in front, but with a much smaller advantage of only 46 seconds, as UAE Team Emirates-XRG began to help chase down the leaders.

UAE showed their hand with 10km to go, after Mikkel Bjerg led out Florian Vermeersch for a big attack. This had an impact, splitting the front of the peloton, but the group that went with him was too big, meaning poor cooperation and a quick regrouping.

The attacks weren’t done, though, with Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) and Matyáš Kopecký (Unibet Rose Rockets) bridging across to the six leaders, only for the breakaway to be caught entirely when a surge from Berckmoes brought the race leader Philipsen to the front of proceedings.

With a sprint looking certain, the last bid for glory came from Uno-X Mobility’s Carl-Frederik Bévort, who attacked with 1.5km to go and had the advantage over the faltering peloton. However, work from XDS Astana kept the bunch close enough, allowing Philipsen to surge across to his wheel and still win the final sprint of a hectic week of racing in Belgium.

Results :

Final General Classification :