The Wolfpack enjoyed another successful outing at the Belgian race.
Twenty-four hours after he took his first victory of the year in spectacular fashion from a small breakaway group that held on by the skin of its teeth, Davide Ballerini came agonizingly close from repeating that feat on the longest stage of this edition.
Held over an up-and-down parcours sprinkled with six cobblestone sectors, the day had a large 15-man group in the spotlight, and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Italian was there having attacked from the off. Unlike Tuesday, the peloton learned its lesson and didn’t let the escapees take their margin over three minutes, but even in these conditions Ballerini gave the chasers a run for their money.
The 27-year-old felt in his element of the cobbles, and it was there he drove a high tempo that helped the group – who was reduced to just five riders in the closing part of the stage – maintain their advantage over the bunch. Ten seconds separated the leaders from the field with ten kilometers to go, and Davide kept attacking, and at one point dropped three of his fellow escapees, surging ahead with just one other rider for company.
It took a huge effort from three teams to bring back the stage 4 winner under the flamme rouge, but even so the stage didn’t culminate in a bunch sprint, as Jan Bakelants (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) attacked and took a solo victory ahead of overall winner Robert Stannard (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
The Wolfpack, who leads the team win classification having racked up 38 victories so far with 12 different riders, leaves the Tour de Wallonie as the only squad to have triumphed on two stages.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
