Tim Wellens ready to defend Renewi Tour title with UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Heading in as the reigning champion of the last two editions, Belgium’s Tim Wellens is ready to defend his crown for UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the upcoming Renewi Tour. Taking place from Wednesday, 20 August, to Sunday, 24 August, the five-day event is the only WorldTour stage race to be held in the Benelux region of the Netherlands and Belgium.

Winner of the race in both 2023 and 2024 for the Emirati squad, Wellens will return to one of his favourite races of the season with a powerful set of teammates, who look capable of competing across all five stages. Complementing Wellens’ assets will be his compatriot Florian Vermeersch, who finished as the runner-up to Wellens in the general classification two seasons ago.

Wellens has enjoyed perhaps the best summer of his career to date, winning both the Belgian national road race championships and a memorable stage at the Tour de France. Heading into the race he has won four times across ten starts, the 34-year-old is full of optimism for the week ahead.

Wellens: “The Renewi Tour is the race where I’ve won most in my career and I’m always looking forward to going back and racing there. Coming into it this year, my level is a bit lower as I was sick for a period after the Tour with flu. But I hope to find my legs towards the end of the race.

“That’s not a problem, however, because I have very strong teammates like António Morgado who I think can play a role in the GC, and of course, Florian Vermeersch, my fellow Belgian teammate, is always very motivated for these races like myself, so I think he can do a nice result.”

For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the two overall victories in as many years have been built on consistent results through the week, with Jasper Philipsen’s success in 2020 the team’s last stage win at the Renewi Tour. The Emirati squad will certainly aim to add to that tally this time around.

Joining Wellens and Vermeersch in the Benelux region will be Igor Arrieta, Julius Johansen, Sebastián Molano, António Morgado and Rui Oliveira. With at least two of the stages this year favouring a sprint finish, both Molano and Morgado will be men to watch, with the latter once more showing his talents with a seventh-place finish at the recent ADAC Cyclassics in Hamburg.

From the team car, the seven-man squad will be led by Sports Directors Fabio Baldato and Yousif Mirza.

Covering over 900km across the Netherlands and Belgium, the 2025 Renewi Tour will begin on Dutch roads on Wednesday, 20 August. Stage 1 will begin in Terneuzen and end with a likely bunch sprint in Breskens, given the lack of any real climbs across the 182.6km course.

Equally, stage 2 should see the sprinters come to the fore once more, with the race heading into Belgium for an exciting finish in Ardooie. With that said, the general classification contenders will have to be on their toes, with the stage start on the coast in Belgium promising the possibility of high winds and echelons.

For those well-versed with the Renewi Tour, stage 3 will be a familiar sight, with the stage featuring the historic Bosberg climb and ending halfway up the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Featuring iconic climbs from the Tour of Flanders’ past, Friday will certainly be the Queen stage of the race, and will see the riders tackle the likes of the Taaienberg, the Berg ten Houte and the challenging Donderoodberg.

Across these steep, narrow climbs, the Classics specialists will do battle to prove themselves worthy of the race’s leader’s jersey. Over the past two winning editions for Wellens and UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the Belgian has twice finished runner-up on the Muur, marking his path towards the title. The 34-year-old will aim for another consistent display this time out.

Meanwhile, his teammates, Molano and Morgado, will each look to stage 4 with intrigue. Standing at over 200km in length, including the neutral section, Saturday’s stage takes place across a difficult circuit north of Liège. Although earmarked for a sprint finish, stage 4 holds just as much climbing as the previous day to Geraardsbergen, and the Slingerberg (500m at 9.4%) will almost certainly tempt opportunists into attacks.

The final ascent of Slingerberg will top out with 28.5km to ride, preceding a flat run to home in Bilzen-Hoeselt. We may well see a sprint finish, but it will likely be amongst those fast men who are equally adept on short, sharp climbs.

To close the week out, the Renewi Tour will head to Leuven, where the race will incorporate the route of the now-defunct Tour of Leuven-Memorial Jef Scherens. Beginning and ending in the city of the 2021 World Championships road race, the fifth and final stage of this year’s race will complete four laps of the very same circuit used in Julian Alaphilippe’s acquisition of the rainbow bands.

With that race remembered for its explosive battles across hilly terrain, stage 5 of the Renewi Tour promises an exciting showdown between the general classification contenders. Each climb is short but steep, and the narrow, winding roads will make it possible for attacks to last the distance.