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Thomas De Gendt’s 5 best breakaways
The road career of Thomas De Gendt drew to a close this week. Over the past 16 years, the Belgian – now 37 years old – has enjoyed a prosperous career and built a huge fan base thanks to a penchant for breakaways, often jumping clear of the field and riding his own race either in a select front group or solo.
Here’s a compilation of five of our favourites Thomas De Gendt breakaways.
5. 2018 Tour de Romandie, Stage 2: An all-day breakaway
Stage 2 of the 2018 Tour de Romandie was pencilled in as one for the sprinters despite an uphill slog in the middle of the day, but a resilient breakaway would change that. De Gendt formed an early five-man break with teammate Victor Campenaerts as the race departed Delémont and covered 174km towards Yverdon-Les-Bains.
Managing to dislodge what was left of the breakaway over the second of three uncategorised climbs, De Gendt went solo for the remaining 26km towards victory. He finished the day with a gap of two minutes to the next group on the road.
It was a masterful display of teamwork from the Lotto-Soudal team and a successful day out in front for the breakaway expert. He would go on to win the mountains and points jerseys too.
4. 2019 Volta a Catalunya, Stage 1: Into the leader’s jersey
The opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya in 2019 was a 163.7km ride starting and finishing in the Spanish coastal town of Calella. Initially working as part of a six-man breakaway, De Gendt rode clear in the final 60km of the day with an attack towards the penultimate climb of the Coll de Formic.
By the time he hit the summit of the shorter final climb of the Port de Collsacreu, his gap had grown to almost four minutes and the peloton seemed content in the shadow of his stage victory. De Gendt rode into the lead of the race with an almost three-minute advantage and would lead the GC for the next two stages.
Catalunya has always presented itself as a stage-hunting ground for the Belgian, who thrives in the hillier parcours. Throughout his career, he would win five stages here in total.
3. 2012 Paris-Nice, Stage 7: A lengthy 56km solo
Stage 7 of the 2012 Paris-Nice was a 219km ride from Sisteron to Nice. After 50km in the saddle De Gendt, then riding for Vacansoleil-DCM, teamed up for a breakaway with Cofidis’s Rein Taaramäe, who had been involved in an earlier crash.
The pair stayed together on the first climb of the day, the Col des Leques, and their gap swelled to 12 minutes over the bunch on the longest day of the race. Eventually, with 56km remaining, De Gendt dropped his battling breakaway companion on the Col de Vence. It was on the descent that he worked his magic to put real distance between the pair.
He would’ve had time to stop for a coffee and still win. Instead he raised his arms in celebration and waited more than six minutes for Taaramäe to cross the line just ahead of the closing peloton.
2. 2019 Tour de France, Stage 8: Will he or won’t he?
In 2019, the Tour de France peloton covered 200km from Macon on Stage 8, a hilly day that incorporated four Category 2 climbs on the road towards Saint-Étienne. Making another early breakaway, De Gendt formed a trio with Niki Terpstra, who was riding for Total Direct Énergie at the time, and Dimension Data’s Ben King, before they were joined by Alessandro De Marchi, then in CCC colours.
With his Lotto-Soudal teammate Tim Wellens in the polka dot jersey, De Gendt began hoovering up mountain points. The breakaway split after the Côte de la Croix de Part, leaving a duo of De Gendt and De Marchi to maintain a lead of almost four minutes on the peloton.
The Côte de la Jaillière was the final uphill struggle and this is where De Gendt went solo as the gap to the chasers dipped below a minute. Behind, Julian Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot jumped clear. De Gendt’s advantage grew smaller, and by the final 5km it stood at just 20 seconds.
Despite being in sight of his pursuers, De Gendt persevered. Saint-Étienne was a finish location he knew well, having won there at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2017 from another breakaway. Alaphilippe tried everything to close the gap but it was of no use – De Gendt won his second Tour stage with hands on his helmet in disbelief.
It was still a jubilant day for French fans as Alaphilippe took over the honour of wearing the yellow jersey from Trek-Segafredo’s Giulio Ciccone. As for the victory itself, it is one that De Gendt considers number one in his personal rankings.
1. 2012 Giro d’Italia, Stage 20: A ride that threatened to turn the Giro on its head
This is the breakaway that helped launch a 25-year-old towards his first and only Grand Tour podium. The penultimate stage of the 2012 Giro d’Italia travelled over the Mortirolo and ended with a summit finish atop the snow-covered Passo dello Stelvio.
De Gendt began the day eighth on general classification, 5min 40sec down on maglia rosa Joaquim Rodríguez of Katusha. It was on the Mortirolo that he began attacking and eventually rode clear from Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Mikel Nieve and Lampre ISD’s Damiano Cunego in the final 12km.
With such a gap, he threatened to work his way into the pink jersey, at one point inching to just a few seconds back on Rodríguez on the virtual classification. As he crossed the line at the highest point of the race on the Stelvio, De Gendt forged a name for himself with his first Grand Tour victory but also moved closer to the podium, now sitting fourth overall.
After the time-trial on the final day, he moved up to third for a famous Grand Tour podium. As for Stage 20, it was an almighty day in the breakaway that resulted in one of the best victories of De Gendt’s career and added more stories to the legend of the Stelvio.
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