Tour de Wallonie: Ben Oliver outpaces Arnaud De Lie to win closing stage and snatch overall title

Kim Heiduk (Netcompany Ineos) had launched the sprint long at 300 metres to go before De Lie blasted past with Oliver on his wheel.

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However, disaster struck at the front of the peloton as Heiduk came into contact with Oliver, falling and taking out multiple riders behind him.

Oliver and De Lie avoided the carnage, with the New Zealander speeding past in the final metres to take his second win of the race and the final orange jersey as race winner.

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De Lie, winner of stage 4 with a phenomenal come-from-behind finish, faded to third place as Killian Théot (Van Rysel-Roubaix) took second place. Anders Foldager (Jayco-AlUla) and Daan Depuydt (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions) rounded out the top five.

“It’s actually insane. It definitely hasn’t sunk in yet,” Oliver said after the win, which counts as the second and third of his career after his breakthrough triumph earlier in the week.

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“Obviously, we knew it was three seconds for the GC coming into the last stage. Really, you just needed to win the last stage to take it, and the bonus seconds just added to the carnage, so I just went all in for the stage win and somehow pulled it off.

“I was hoping to have a good week here, but the competition was super strong. I just had to take it day-by-day. Today was the hardest one yet. I was just surviving and managed to have a kick to the line.

“By a country mile. It’s insane to get my first pro win, and then a GC for a five-day race in Belgium is absolutely incredible. On the new American team, vibes are super high, and it’s just a wicked team to be a part of.

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“We just had to try and get as many of our guys over those hard climbs in the middle of the stage. They were really good at positioning me on the final laps. It was super, super hard, and I just held on and then managed to have a sprint.”

Oliver’s three wins this week count as the first European victories for Modern Adventure in the team’s first year of racing. He beats former leader Riley Sheehan (NSN), who crashed hard in the final, to the title by two seconds, while De Lie rounds out the final podium at five seconds down.

The hilly closing stage in Wallonie took the riders on a challenging 176km course which took in six classified climbs. With the peloton racing hard through the hills, the early break was caught 77km from the finish. A two-rider move consisting of Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions) and Alvaro Sagrado (Storck-MRW Bau) went at 31km to go, but both were caught at 7km to go, setting up a sprint finish.

The usual suspects of Netcompany Ineos, Jayco-AlUla, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lotto-Intermarché, and NSN lined up at the front to control the run into Aubel. Jayco and Lotto led it into the final kilometre, while Heiduk went early to launch the final dash to the line.

After the inadvertent collision with Oliver held up much of the peloton, it was left to the few survivors to contest the final metres of the race, with the New Zealander sprinting to the big double victory.