The Baloise Belgium Tour, a five-day stage race which ended last Sunday, has never been so successful for the BKCP-Powerplus team as this time around.  Twenty year old current Elite cyclocross champion Mathieu van der Poel rode his STEVENS Comet to solid sprint finishes as well as in breakaways to earn himself 6th place in the overall standings, while teammate Philipp Walsleben took home the green jersey as most aggressive rider.

"That was our best Tour ever", exclaims team manager Christoph Roodhooft.  Adding, "For his age, Mathieu was very well integrated amongst the top riders day after day, and the green jersey for Philipp is great too!"

In the 6.5km prologue, Van der Poel rode his STEVENS Super Trofeo to a solid 11th place.  And on the hilly third and fourth stages, which played to his strengths, he was able to sprint to 5th and 9th respectively.  In the second stage, which ended in a sprint finish, he safely arrived home with the leaders.

The final stage of the race was a very hilly one, traveling over some of the infamous grueling climbs found in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.   Van der Poel was amongst the first chasing group and finished 17th on the stage. In the overall standings, he was 1min59sec  behind winner Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), with Tiesj Benoot and Gaetan Bille finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively.

On a more negative note, teammate Vincent Baestaens crashed badly in the final stage which landed him in the hospital with a significant but not live-threatening spinal fracture and broken rib which will put him on the sidelines for a few months. STEVENS wishes him a speedy recovery!