In the queen stage of the Renewi Tour, eleven riders, including Edoardo Affini, attacked early on. The breakaway built up a lead of more than three minutes, but in the hilly section that advantage quickly decreased as the pace in the peloton increased sharply.

Because of that high pace the peloton split, and with 50 kilometers to go a small group of favorites managed to bridge across to the breakaway. Affini gave it his all in the finale but had to let the favorites go on the final climb of the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Top favorite Mathieu van der Poel lived up to his status by winning the stage. Kooij eventually finished in tenth place.

“It was a tough stage today,” said Kooij afterwards. “Thanks to the excellent work of my teammates I was able to stay near the front reasonably well and still come away with a top placing. That was the maximum possible today.”

Team manager Marc Reef echoed that feeling: “The goal was to be in the break and to support Olav as well as possible. Both tasks were carried out successfully. Edoardo rode a strong race in the breakaway and the rest of the team supported Olav perfectly in the finale. We got the maximum out of today and delivered a strong performance as a team.”