PREVIEW & FAVOURITES | Renewi Tour 2025 stage 5 - Will Mathieu van der Poel be able to dethrone Arnaud de Lie?

Stage 5 of the Renewi Tour will take place in the hilly and technical circuit that has been used in the 2021 World Championships in Leuven. We preview the final day of the race in which the sprinters and classics riders will have an interesting battle, and with the lead of Arnaud de Lie being held by 1 second over Mathieu van der Poel, we can expect fireworks.

The race ends in Leuven this year, not Geraardsbergen, but we could see an even more interesting and dramatic finale. The stage begins and finishes in the city that hosted the 2021 World Championships and towards the end, the riders will tackle four laps of the very same circuit.

This is an urban circuit in a hilly city, an incredibly explosive one - where Julian Alaphilippe conquered the rainbow jersey four years ago. Looking at the profile it does not look very difficult, but the combination of the many small climbs, many turns and lack of fully flat roads makes it the ideal environment for tactic and chaotic racing. This is a day where the GC can be turned on it's head and early attacks in the circuit can succeed.

And we can certainly expect Mathieu van der Poel to go crazy on this circuit, as he is in good form and has incredible bike handling skills that will make closing any gap to him almost impossible. He wants the overall win, but on the other side we've got an insanely powerful peak form Arnaud de Lie who will be a nightmare to drop at the same time. A battle of titans, with several GC riders looking to surprise on this key day of the race too.

*** Mathieu van der Poel, Arnaud de Lie
** Tim Wellens, Tibor del Grosso, Axel Laurance
* Alberto Bettiol, Fred Wright, Matej Mohoric, Olav Kooij, Pavel Bittner, Paul Magnier, Jasper Stuyven, Florian Vermeersch, Mathias Vacek, Thibau Nys

Pick: Mathieu van der Poel

How: The technical and explosive circuit is perfect for van der Poel, and I think that although it will be a very hard task, he will be able to make the difference and take a solo win.