Tinkoff-Saxo chased hard behind the four-rider break in the finale of the GP de Wallonie, trying to set Ivan Rovny up for the uphill sprint. In the end, it was Rory Sutherland who did best for the Russian team, finishing the race in fifth.

Rory Sutherland confirmed the good impression he had made in the Tour of Britain when he finished fifth in the GP de Wallonie. His Tinkoff-Saxo team had missed the late four-rider breakaway and was forced into chase mode but managed to bring things back together on the upper slopes of the final climb.

However, the plan wasn not to set Sutherland up for the sprint. Instead, Ivan Rovny had been the designated captain.

“The plan was to set up Rovny for the finale but he didn’t make it to the front group, which meant we had to work hard, chasing the front group,"  sports director Bruno Chengialta said. "And finally in the very final kilometer, we made it back up to the tail of the breakaway and Rory showed good form by sprinting from the rest of the pack to finish 5th”.