BinckBank Tour 2018 Route stage 5: Sint-Pieters-Leeuw (bel) – Lanaken (bel)

Friday, 17 August 2018 - Amounting to 209.2 kilometres, the 5th stage of the BinckBank Tour is the longest race of this edition. On rolling roads the route runs from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw to a slightly uphill arrival in Lanaken.

Departure Sint-Pieters-Leeuw hosted the race once before. Two years ago the last stage left from the town just south of Brussels for a race to the Wall of Geraardsbergen. This time the route travels to Lanaken in the eastern part of Belgium, close to the Dutch border.

The BinckBank Tour - and its predecessor Eneco Tour - visited Lanakan twice before. Last year, Edward Theuns outgunned Marko Kump and Tim Merlier in a bunch sprint, while the 2016 edition saw Luka Pibernik bring the early break home in a three-up sprint with Mark McNally and Bert Van Lerberghe.

Stage 5 in the BinckBank Tour of 2018 is an undulating affair. At kilometre 19 the riders climb 800 metres at 5% and with that the only KOM-points of the day are gone. At kilometre 172.9 the route crosses the finish line for the first time before the race ends with two local rounds of 12.1 kilometres. The last 300 metres climb false flat.

Starting at kilometre 191.1, the Golden Kilometre offers three opportunities to win time bonuses of 3, 2 and 1 seconds within 1,000 metres. The first three riders on the line take 10, 6 and 4 seconds.