Spaniard Alex Aranburu triumphs in Durbuy in the fourth stage of the Tour of Belgium 2024! The queen stage of the Flemish race gives away great show, especially in a heart-pounding finale with the group’s frantic pursuit of the four attackers. In the end, finding the right gap on the last wall of the day is the Iberian born in 1995, who wins for the seventh time in his career and returns to raise his arms to the sky two years after the last time. Søren Wærenskjold retains the overall leader’s jerseyafter a day in which his team shot from the first to the last meter.
Second position for the Frenchman Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon AG2R The World Team), while third a positive arrives Jasper Philipsenwith the Belgian from Alpecin proving to hold up great even on decidedly selective routes. Fourth place for the American Riley Sheehan (Israel – Premier Tech), the Spaniard fifth Carlos Canal (Movistar Team) to precede the host Jasper Stuyven, while he is seventh Lorenzo Rota. The best of the Azzurri was part of the quartet caught 800 meters from the finish line, and was the last to give up.
A city circuit that immediately proved to be anything but predictable, with roads that continued to go up and down without giving the runners a break. The first of the four laps was already tackled in full force, with sprints and counter-sprints occurring in abundance. By force, and after a lot of battle, a dozen of them leftwith the group that initially didn’t seem to want to give them any space, but then they got up and the breakaway took a couple of minutes of margin.
A fairly large group of attackers that could boast very interesting riders within it, such as the Frenchman Rémi Cavagna (Movistar Team), the Belgian Quinten Hermans (Alpecin – Deceuninck) and the Slovakian Martin Svrček (Soudal Quick-Step). An advantage that, however, never really took off, also thanks to the work in the Uno-X Mobility groupteam of the leader of the general. A real forcing from the Norwegian teamwho, less than sixty kilometers from the finish, already had all the fugitives in sight, only to then take his foot off the accelerator for a moment so as not to reopen the brawl.
However, fate is inevitably sealed for the attackers, resumed shortly before the start of the last round. Lild-Trek and Team Visma | Lease a Bike tackled the penultimate passage on the Durbuy Wall head-on, with Stuyven very lively in the top positions. L’The American squadron’s ace in the hole was Mathias Vacek, with the Czech starting 28 km from the finish line, separating everyone. For the young man born in 2002 this morning he was only eleven seconds behind the leader Wærenskjold, and this was clearly an action designed to break the bank.
A majestic leg for the Czech, who immediately took a thirty-second lead over the main group and a dozen over his closest pursuers: the Italian Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché – Wanty), the Belgian Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto Dstny) and the British Joseph Blackmore (Israel – Premier Tech). After almost fourteen kilometers alone Vacek was caught by the trio, and the four leading the race found themselves with 27″ to defend on the main group. A feat that seemed almost done, but the group came back at them with less than eight hundred meters to go.
The decisive moment at the top of the Durbuy Wall was, as mentioned, Aranburuwho succeeds His Majesty Mathieu Van der Poel in the roll of honor on this arrival. Tomorrow we’ll fly to Brussels, but be careful because Vacek only has 2″ (thanks to the bonus game) to be recovered in Wærenskjold, and it will be a battle.
