24/07/2024

Tour de Wallonie 2024 | Markus Hoelgaard takes queen stage win as Corbin Strong holds onto overall race lead

The queen stage of the 2024 Tour de Wallonie brought plenty of drama. In the end, Uno-X Mobility's Markus Hoelgaard secured the victory ahead of Jimmy Janssens.

Five riders got themselves into the breakaway of the day early on stage 3. Most notable among the attackers were Movistar Team's Johan Jacobs and Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jimmy Janssens, with the Belgian the best placed in terms of the general classification at 1:56 down.

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In fact Janssens was still in the provisional race lead heading into the final 20km, with the Belgian and Uno-X Mobility's Markus Hoelgaard remaining from the day's break, around two minutes clear of the peloton. On the final climb of the day, an eight rider counter attack went clear of the peloton, that included a number of notable names such as race leader Corbin Strong alongside teammate Dylan Teuns and Simon Clarke, plus Natnael Tesfatsion and Lorenzo Rota among others.

With the time gap between the leaders and the chasers still hovering just under the two minute mark though, more than just the stage win was a possibility for Janssens heading into the final 7 kilometres. By the time the Flamme Rouge was reached however, things were a whole lot closer.

Nevertheless, the stage win did go the leading duo. Hoelgaard was stuck on the front and whilst Janssens was waiting for the right moment, the Uno-X man fired off down the road to take the stage win.