Arnaud De Lie secured the final stage victory and the overall title at the 2025 Renewi Tour by out-sprinting Mathieu van der Poel on a hilly Leuven circuit. Dries De Bondt launched a late solo that was caught in the dying metres, claiming third on the day. A time bonus on the final stage gave De Lie the general classification by three seconds over Van der Poel, with Tim Wellens third overall at 31 seconds. The overall win marked De Lie's first WorldTour stage-race victory after a season hindered by injury and illness.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) defied all expectations, holding off the challenge from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) with the victory on the final stage and the overall win as well of the 2025 Renewi Tour. The Belgian survived numerous attacks on the hilly circuit in Leuven, waited patiently as a solo flyer from Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was caught in the dying metres, and then unleashed a vicious acceleration up the right side to out-sprint Van der Poel on the left. De Bondt held on for third on the day.
"I don't have words," De Lie said. "Winning a stage was already a goal, but winning the overall is incredible." De Lie almost saw his hopes vanish during the 'green kilometre' - a series of three time bonus sprints, when Van der Poel jumped away to snatch the three-second bonus and he could only manage one. "When Mathieu took three seconds and I was third, I said 'merde' - I played poker in the end. I was waiting for that sprint, and that's what I did, a long sprint."
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