Renewi Tour

The Renewi Tour is a five-day WorldTour cycling stage race held in late August in Belgium and, in some years, the Netherlands. Formerly known as the Eneco Tour, BinckBank Tour and Benelux Tour, it comes late in the summer, after the Tour de France.

The Renewi Tour is a WorldTour stage race in Belgium and the Netherlands, first held in 2005 as the Eneco Tour. It has no real mountains. The overall classification is usually decided by seconds, on the cobbled climbs around Geraardsbergen and in the bonus sprints of the green kilometer.

How the Eneco Tour became the Renewi Tour

The race began in 2005 as the Eneco Tour, a replacement for the old Tour of the Netherlands, and was part of the first ProTour season. Bobby Julich won that first edition. It became the BinckBank Tour in 2017 and the Benelux Tour in 2021.

The 2022 edition did not take place. The organizer, Golazo, said its dates of August 29 to September 4 clashed with the Vuelta a España, and that Dutch police could not guarantee supervision of the stages in the Netherlands. The race returned in 2023 as the Renewi Tour, over five days where it had earlier run for seven. The 2026 race was the 21st edition.

A stage race on the roads of the Classics

In its first years the general classification came down almost entirely to time trialing. By 2017 the route also crossed the hills around Sittard-Geleen, the Belgian Ardennes and the cobbles of Flanders, and the winner had to cope with all three. Tom Dumoulin started the last stage that year four seconds ahead of Tim Wellens. Jasper Stuyven attacked with just under three kilometers left and won alone in Geraardsbergen, and Dumoulin finished third on the stage to keep the lead.

Geraardsbergen has decided the race more than any other town. The circuit there climbs the Muur van Geraardsbergen, a landmark of the Tour of Flanders, then the Bosberg, the Onkerzeleberg and the Denderoordberg. In 2026 the finish line was on the cobbles of De Vesten, halfway up the Muur and before the steep section by the chapel.

Mathieu van der Poel’s 50-kilometer solo in 2020

The 2020 race was moved to September 29 to October 3 and cut to five stages. After stage 1, new coronavirus restrictions in the Netherlands forced the organizers to drop the Vlissingen time trial and run the remaining stages in Belgium. Mathieu van der Poel started the last stage 17 seconds behind Mads Pedersen.

He attacked on the Muur with 75 kilometers to go and drew a group clear. On the next passage of the climb he attacked again and rode the last 50 kilometers alone. “It wasn’t my plan. It was way too early. I wanted to attack on the Muur but not alone,” he said. He took nine bonus seconds at the golden kilometer, the bonus-sprint section of the BinckBank years, and won the stage three seconds ahead of Oliver Naesen. He won the race by four seconds from Søren Kragh Andersen, his first overall victory in a WorldTour stage race.

Tim Wellens and his record four overall wins

Wellens won in 2014 and 2015, and again in 2023. On the last day of the 2023 race he led a riders’ protest about the small and dangerous roads in the finale. Racing stopped until the organizers agreed to take the overall times before the last five kilometers and to award no bonus seconds at the finish.

In 2024 Wellens began the last stage 16 seconds behind Alec Segaert. The early break was caught around the final ascent of the Muur, 25 kilometers from the line, and when Wellens attacked only Arnaud De Lie could follow at first. Wellens picked up eight bonus seconds in the green kilometer. Other riders got across, but his accelerations in the last seven kilometers left him alone with De Lie again. De Lie won the stage in Geraardsbergen, Wellens was second, and Segaert finished 47 seconds down. It was Wellens’s fourth overall win, and no other rider has won the race more than twice.

The green kilometer and De Lie’s three-second win in 2025

The green kilometer is a series of three bonus sprints close together. On the last stage in 2025, on a circuit around Leuven, one second separated De Lie and Van der Poel at the top of the classification. Van der Poel took three seconds at the first sprint and De Lie one, which put Van der Poel in the virtual lead.

Dries De Bondt attacked in the last kilometer, and Tibor Del Grosso chased him down for Van der Poel. De Lie came up the right side of the road, passed both of them and won the stage. The time bonus at the finish gave him the race by three seconds, with Wellens third at 31 seconds.

Jasper Philipsen wins overall as a sprinter in 2026

Jasper Philipsen took the lead in 2026 by winning the bunch sprint on stage 2 in Ardooie. On stage 3 Jenno Berckmoes went clear with Segaert over the last ascent of the Muur and won in Geraardsbergen. His 18 bonus seconds, eight of them from the green kilometer on the Bosberg, put him six seconds ahead of Philipsen.

Philipsen won stage 4 in a photo finish and led by four seconds going into the last day. On the final ascent of the Wijnpers in Leuven, Berckmoes attacked and briefly opened a gap, but the peloton came back together. Philipsen won the sprint, his third stage of the week. It was his first overall win in a WorldTour stage race.

This is the rare stage race that feels like a northern Classics campaign compressed into a single week. The route typically mixes sprint stages on wind-exposed roads in West Flanders, hilly circuits in Limburg and around Leuven, and a stage over the cobbled Muur van Geraardsbergen, with a short time trial in some editions. Time bonuses, including the three sprints of the Green Kilometer, often decide the overall. It attracts a mix of Classics specialists looking for late-season form and all-rounders testing their condition before the Vuelta or the World Championships.