Van der Poel wins BinckBank Tour after daring attack on final stage

Mathieu van der Poel claimed the overall victory at the BinckBank Tour after winning stage five following a daring solo breakaway on the final day of racing

The Dutch star began the fifth stage with a 17-second deficit to race leader Mads Pedersen of Denmark.

Van der Poel attacked with 75 kilometres remaining of the 187.64km stage, which included four laps around Geraardsbergen and three ascents of the Denderoordstraat, Bosberg and the Muur van Geraardsbergen climbs.

The attack on the Muur saw Van der Poel and French rider Florian Sénéchal bridge to an early breakaway group of eight riders.

The Dutch champion attacked again to move into first place with 50 kilometres to the finish.

He established a lead of over one and a half minutes on the chasing pack, which was gradually reduced as the race approached its conclusion.

Pedersen’s hopes of retaining his race lead were ended when his nearest challenger Soren Kragh Andersen formed part of a four-rider move chasing Van der Poel.

Van der Poel’s prospects were boosted by securing a nine-second time bonus by placing first at the golden kilometre with 11km to go.

Despite the efforts of Kragh Andersen, Switzerland’s Stefan Küng, Belgium’s Oliver Naesen and Italy’s Sonny Colbrelli, the Dutchman prevailed, winning in a time of 4 hours, 7min and 38sec, just three seconds clear of Naesen.

Colbrelli, Küng and Kragh Andersen ended five seconds behind the stage winner.

Van der Poel's performance in the fifth stage handed him the overall victory, with the Alpecin-Fenix rider finishing eight seconds clear of Kragh Andersen.

Küng was third at 23 seconds down.

"It is incredible that I can still win the BinckBank Tour in this way", Van der Poel said.

"The crossing with Sénéchal to the leading group came at a good time, but when we made the connection there, the rest did not want to participate anymore.

"This has to be one of my best performances.

"I absolutely wanted to win here, I am very happy that I finished it this way.

"Better than this is not possible."

Organisers had been forced to adapt the event midweek due to the Dutch Government introducing further coronavirus measures.

The Netherlands had been due to host the time trial on stage two, but the restrictions forced the cancellation of the day and prompted organisers to schedule the rest of the race in Belgium.

The third and fourth stages were adapted.

2020 Binck Bank Tour Stage 5 Highlights

2020 Binck Bank Tour Final GC Top 3

1 Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix
2 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
3 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ

2020 Binck Bank Tour Stage 5 Top 10

1 Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix 4:07:38
2 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R la Mondiale 0:00:03
3 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain McLaren 0:00:05
4 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
5 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:09
6 Dimitri Claeys (Bel) Cofidis 0:00:47
7 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:00:50
8 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 0:01:08
9 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:12
10 Florian Senechal (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:01:13