The Development program were back in action on Thursday afternoon, with a challenging 174 kilometre route starting and finishing in Stavelot. Featuring over 3000 metres of climbing throughout the day and constantly rolling roads, it was set to be a battle.
From the start there were lots of attacks, with Mees Vlot managing to get clear in a promising larger group, but they were then caught with around 50 kilometres still to race. At that point, the backdoor of the peloton was open and it became a pure race of attrition. Two first-year U23 riders in the Development program, Lennes Jacobs and Matthew Peace, impressed and climbed superbly to make the decisive front split of around 20 riders coming into the closing 20 kilometres. Unfortunately both had to let go of the wheels when some stinging attacks were made, but rode it all the way to the finish, ending the day with respectable placings in and around the top 15.