BMC racer Greg van Avermaet won the overall classification of the Tour de Wallonie with a powerful sprint win in the final stage between Charleroi and Thuin (154.4 kilometers). Joost van Leijen (Vacansoleil), who was tied on time going into the final day, was the runner up on two accounts - in the stage standings as well as in the final overall classification. Van Leijen was four seconds behind Van Avermaet, with Ben Hermans (RadioShack) following in lockstep - third in the sprint today and third in GC (22 seconds back).
After the big Tour de France win, BMC took another superb victory, with Van Avermaet finding his sprinting legs again. He clearly beat Van Leijen into second. "The finish suited me well and it was great work by my teammates," Van Avermaet said. "Every day they were there to help me. This is definitely a highlight of my career." Van Avermaet showed great promise when he won a stage in the Vuelta a España in 2008, but he has had a couple of mediocre years. The switch to BMC seems to have been good for him.
It is the first stage race victory of Van Avermaet's career, after finishing second overall at the Tour of Belgium in May. The Belgian also won a stage of the Tour of Austria earlier this month on the way to taking the sprint classification. "I've known Greg for a long time and he's always been a winner," BMC Racing Team Assistant Director Rik Verbrugghe said. "So to see him do well in Belgium, Austria and now here is great. He is on good form and we'll see if he can hold it through to San Sebastian on Saturday."
Vacansoleil did well to take a stage win and the yellow jersey for one day (Van Leijen in stage two) and also won the mountains classification (Mirko Selvaggi). Van Leijen tried to escape in the end of the hotly contested stage. Only 14 riders sprinted for victory, and Van Avermaet took the win despite being on his own. Vacansoleil still had Michal Golas and Sergey Lagutin to help Van Leijen all the way to the last kick.
The sprints classification was won by Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen), ahead of Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ) and Van Avermaet. Vacansoleil took the teams classification for its efforts.
The break of the day consisted of Christophe Premont, Romain Lemarchand, Olivier Kaisen, Jesse Sergent and Mathieu Ladagnous. After the first intermediate sprint Andy Cappelle and Pieter Jacobs joined. But with bonus seconds received, Ladagnous became dangerous for BMC, so the American team strung out the bunch in pursuit of the leaders. When the local laps with less than 25 kilometers remaining were reached, everything was back together.
Taylor Phinney and Alexander Kristoff led the bunch,preventing any breakaways. In the final ten kilometers Alessandro Ballan led Van Avermaet onto the cobbled climb to the finish of the Mur de Thuin. Van Avermaet's victory marks the fourth stage race won by the BMC Racing Team in 2011, adding to the three by Cadel Evans (Tour de France, Tour de Romandie and Tirreno-Adriatico).
Results stage five: Charleroi - Thuin (154.4km)
1 VAN AVERMAET GREG BMC
2 VANLEIJEN JOOST VCD 00:00:00
3 HERMANS BEN RSH
4 DE KORT KOEN SKS
5 CAMMAERTS EDWIG * LAN
6 DEGAND THOMAS VWA
7 SIJMENS NICO COF
8 GARZELLI STEFANO ASA
9 BARRY MICHAEL SKY
10 DEWAELE BERT LAN
Final GC
1 VAN AVERMAET GREG BMC
2 VANLEIJEN JOOST VCD 0:00:04
3 HERMANS BEN RSH 0:00:22
4 GOLAS MICHAL VCD 0:00:30
5 CAMMAERTS EDWIG * LAN 0:00:30
6 DEGAND THOMAS VWA 0:00:30
7 DEWAELE BERT LAN 0:00:30
8 TRUSOV NIKOLAY KAT 0:00:33
9 DE KORT KOEN SKS 0:00:33
10 MAES NIKOLAS QST 0:00:36