Renewi Tour 2026 Wednesday 19th - Sunday 23rd August

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Stage 1 - Wednesday 19th August

Diest - Diest 191.3kms

A punchy, rolling circuit through the Hageland region with around 1,090 m of elevation

Loads of short, sharp climbs (including several ascents of the Grasbos at approx 0.4 km / 5.5%) and some cobbled sections, finishing after the final Grasbos roughly 10kms from the line.

Today's 190kms was hectic enough obviously because of the rain with gear on and off and so on. But it suited us I think. It made for clearer racing if that makes sense to ye.

It might sound a bit strange to say that because when the rain hits like it did today you might think it makes things a bit harder. But it makes for more focused racing.

I find it almost a bit easier. Our plan was quite simple actually: just get to a sprint with Pavel.

When you look at the field, it's filled with world-class sprinters. So we didn't feel it was on us to ride. The rain kept falling and so did riders!

Luckily, we avoided everything and pulled together well as a team inside the final. Myself, Julius, and Pavel got together inside the last 5 - 10kms and were positioned well towards the front and out of trouble.

Avoided the crash on the final ascent of the Grasbos that led to a split in the Peleton.

Although it all come back together closer to the finish, the chase had taken a bit of steam out of a couple of the big hitters.

I would have liked to have given him a better leadout. Unfortunately, just as I was moving up to give him that bit of shelter to bring him into the last 200m, I got caught up among the break riders that the peloton had caught that hadn’t pulled in fully as we passed.

Maybe it was the conditions because it was lashing down at that point. Briefly, but precious milli-seconds at that stage of the race.

Frustrating my end but happy that Pavel ended up getting a top ten. He’s a really solid consistent rider.

A super job by the whole team though. Hard enough getting together towards the end, but satisfied with a good day out. A great job done today overall but it was just a bit hard to get together in the last couple of kms. I'm excited enough for tomorrow now...