The final stage of the Renewi Tour offered a nice show on Sunday around Leuven. However, none of the moves that happened in the final hour of racing proved successful. Former French champion Valentin Madouas also went on the attack ten kilometers from the finish, briefly took to lead, but was unable to hold off the peloton. Still up there in the final, Paul Penhoët then went for the sprint and finished in eighth place. Valentin Madouas lost a position in the overall standings and finished just outside the top 10 (11th).
Although the 1,500 metres of elevation gain recorded in the final stage of the Renewi Tour weren’t particularly impressive, the repetition of around thirty climbs around Leuven could still provide some action on Sunday. This was confirmed from the start, as the breakaway was initially fiercely contested. Lewis Askey was able to hit the front for a while, but ultimately, a quartet managed to break away after around thirty kilometres. The peloton let the gap grow to three minutes, but he also quickly came back, and stretched out considerably, shortly after entering the final eighty kilometres. The attacks eventually began half an hour later on one of the short but explosive climbs of the finishing circuit. A few favorites broke away, and Valentin Madouas showed himself for the first time to close the gap. The moves continued, without much success, until approaching the “green kilometre” with about twenty-five kilometres to go. The Breton couldn’t take part in this battle, which benefited some of his competitors on GC. Shortly after starting the final lap, a threatening group including Mathieu van der Poel, Tim Wellens, and Alberto Bettiol was caught, and the Groupama-FDJ cycling team then formed around Valentin Madouas.
“We’re a little frustrated”, Thierry Bricaud
“We tackled this last stage motivated, with the goal of being opportunistic with Valentin because we knew it was going to be open in the final,” explained Thierry Bricaud. “The goal was to join a small group to win the stage and achieve a good overall result. That’s what Valentin tried to do. The guys showed great commitment.” Launched by Lewis Askey and Clément Russo on the Keizersberg, ten kilometers from the finish, the former French champion went all in and broke away slightly from the pack with three other riders. However, the attempt didn’t last. “The course was hard, punchy, but at the same time not hard enough,” explained Thierry. “The stage was intense, that’s for sure, but there were always teammates left to pull.” Barely caught, Valentin Madouas gave it another go in pursuit on the penultimate climb of the day, but all the attackers were eventually caught after the final climb, around four kilometres from the finish. “We also knew there was a possibility of a small sprint, in which case Paul could be part of it,” added Thierry. And the young Frenchman was definitely present at the front in these closing kilometers, as he even followed an attack from the Belgian champion Tim Wellens.
Everything came back together shortly after, but Clément Russo kept his sprinter in the front positions as they approached the flamme rouge. Dries De Bondt anticipated the bunch sprint, and the Groupama-FDJ lead-out man kept pulling until 300 metres from the finish line, before the sprint really started. Positioned on Mathieu van der Poel’s wheel at that point, Paul Penhoët couldn’t compete for victory and took eighth place. “Paul maybe did a bit too much in the final, but we can’t blame him for that; he wanted to do well,” Thierry said. “He had a bad experience four years ago at the U23 World Championships with a somewhat similar scenario, and he didn’t dare follow. That will serve him for the future.” As for Valentin Madouas, he had to give up his place in the top 10 overall on Sunday, finishing in eleventh position in this Renewi Tour 2025. “Overall, we’re a little frustrated because we weren’t on the right timing on stage 3, we could have done a lot better, and we lost the opportunity to do two great sprints with Paul in the first two days,” concluded Thierry. “Paul still had the opportunity to make a nice sprint yesterday. On the overall, it comes down to a few seconds for the top 10, but that’s racing. We were maybe a bit too conservative in the first few days, but today and yesterday, the guys showed great commitment and didn’t give up.”
