The 36th edition of the Tour de Wallonie ended today with a stage of 167 kilometre between Chimay and Thuin, won by Danny Van Poppel. Niki Terpstra took the yellow jersey in the first stage and he kept it until the end. Boris Vallée finished sixth in the GC at 59 seconds.

Lotto Soudal is going home without a victory, but the team obtained a few top ten places. Louis Vervaeke and Kris Boeckmans had to leave this stage race earlier due to injuries, which occurred during a crash.

“After the training camp in Livigno I didn’t know how my condition would be," Vallee said. "In the GP Cerami I had a good feeling and afterwards I noticed that I was in good shape.

"After the first stage in the Tour de Wallonie, where I was in the break and finished fourth, Etixx – Quick-Step controlled the race. During the stage with finish on the Citadelle de Namur, I had some stomach ache and I had to give my all to limit the damage.

"In the last stage it was a matter of staying with the favourites, I really had to do my very best on the final ascent on the Mur de Thuin. But finally I finished tenth and in that way I maintained sixth in the GC, which is a result that I’m very happy with."

"Normally I had to ride for Jurgen Roelandts today," he told Directvelo after the final stage. Therefore I protected him throughout the day but in the last lap he said he was suffering from stomach pain and allowed me to play my personal card. He positioned me well and allowed me to save strength in the finale. 

"I'm pretty pleased with myself as the tenth place on the Mur de Thuin is pretty good for the experience. We even tought about the stage victory. I tried to hang onto the best without necessarily going into the red on the last climb. I wanted to keep some power for the finish. It was a very good experience to be able to do the finale of a race while generally my role is to position the leaders in front for the climb and let them go for to win. I have said that I will win a stage in the Tour de Wallonie one day so I hope to return next year."