George Bennett ended the Baloise Belgium Tour on Sunday with 23rd in the final stage. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) won the final stage and took the overall.

The fourth stage led the peloton over a hilly course through the Walloon Ardennes. The Stockeu was one of the climbs included in the nearly 200-kilometre course. Start and finish were in Sankt Vith.

Tom Leezer was part of a big breakaway that was caught very early on. Maarten Wynants attacked as well, but when a group of eight including Van Avermaet got away, Team LottoNL-Jumbo was without a man.

George Bennett

George Bennett was in a chase group, but Van Avermaet and the others worked well together and so the New Zealander couldn’t reconnect.

“It was a really hard stage,” Bennett said. “There was a lot of wind and it went up and down all day. The team rode awesome for me. All guys were committed. They kept me sheltered and we even tried to break it in the crosswinds. Eventually, I came to be in the second group. I went all in to come back, but the gap didn’t close. After that I blew up.”

It wasn’t very surprising that Bennett was still short of power. The Baloise Belgium Tour was his first race since the Tour of the Basque Country in April.

“This was my first race in seven weeks. It felt good to be back in the peloton, but I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish it off today. All in all, it was a good experience, however. Also, since I’m not very experienced with cobblestones and racing in the wind.”

Nico Verhoeven

“We fell short today,” Sports Director Nico Verhoeven said. “Our tactics were focused on George, but unfortunately, he still misses some power. In fact, we come up too short the entire week. Tom sprinted three times and three times he came up just short. We have not achieved the results we wanted and of course that is unfortunate.”