Sunday 31 May 2015 - 15:25

Belgium Tour Stage 5: Boonen Wins Points Jersey, Lampaert Top Finisher

Belgium Tour Stage 5: Boonen Wins Points Jersey, Lampaert Top Finisher

Etixx - Quick-Step rider Tom Boonen took home the points jersey, and Yves Lampaert finished 25th in the 199.2km 5th Stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour on Sunday.

The up-and-down stage saw the peloton reduce in number kilometer-by-kilometer. A group of 10 riders had an advantage with 29.9km to go in the stage, with Lampaert doing his best to be in the action. But the pace of the group was too high and he was unable to reduce the gap and stay with the group.

Eventually the group was down to eight leaders, and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal), and Egor Silin (Katusha) distanced the others with 10.1km to go.

Greg Van Avermaet attacked heading into the finish, and while Benoot was able to close, he couldn't pass Van Avermaet. Van Avermaet also won the overall with the stage win out of a breakaway.

Etixx - Quick-Step rider Tom Boonen won the points classification after winning a stage, and finishing 2nd in two other stages. Arnaud Demare (FDJ), who was ahead of him in the points classification, abandoned the race on the final day.

"I'm happy with this result," Boonen said. "Of course when you look back on those two second places, there was probably potential for more, especially yesterday. But with one stage win and the points jersey, I am pleased. Today was a very hard stage. I went into the breakaway with a group of 24 for about 100 kilometers, but the peloton was doing a lot of work to catch us. In the final kilometers I was just empty. I ate everything that I had with me, and it was just enough to make it to the finish.Now I will recover a couple of days and start in Heist-Op-Den-Berg next week."




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