Victor Campenaerts Seals First Career GC Triumph at the 2026 Eneco Tour

A first leader's jersey, defended to the end

Victor Campenaerts is a stage-race winner at last. The 34-year-old Belgian rolled home in tenth place in the final-stage bunch sprint in Arnhem on Sunday to seal overall victory at the 2026 Eneco Tour — the first general classification triumph of his long professional career, and the first time he has ever worn a leader's jersey in a stage race.

Campenaerts, riding for Team Visma | Lease a Bike, started the final day with a 15-second advantage over Wessel Mouris of Unibet Rose Rockets and 30 seconds over Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. He defended it through Saturday's demanding Col du VAM stage and then rode safely in the peloton on Sunday as the race ended, as expected, in a bunch sprint.

The week it all came together

Campenaerts seized the race lead on Friday's third stage, a breathless day that finished with an uphill sprint at Watersley. He escaped with Mick van Dijke of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in the finale; Van Dijke came past him in the closing metres to claim his first professional victory, but Campenaerts' second place, combined with breakaway time gains and bonuses, vaulted him six places up the standings and into the overall lead.

"I've been a professional for a long time, but Saturday will be the first time I wear the leader's jersey in a stage race," Campenaerts said that evening. "Taking the lead in the standings is something very prestigious. We are going to defend this position."

Defend it they did. Saturday's queen stage ran 145 kilometres from Hoogeveen to the Col du VAM, tackling the climb several times along with cobbled sections. A five-man breakaway stayed clear to contest the stage win, while Campenaerts finished ninth in the group of favourites to keep the jersey with one day remaining. "It's the first time that I'm the team goal, so that's quite special," he said.

The turnaround was remarkable given how the week had started: Jakob Söderqvist had dominated both individual time trials earlier in the race, and few would have picked the Belgian rouleur to be standing on the top step in Arnhem.

Merlier's 80th

While Campenaerts rode for the overall, the final stage belonged to Tim Merlier. The Soudal Quick-Step sprinter, already the winner of stage one in Ede, launched a long-range sprint inside the final 400 metres on the five-lap Arnhem finishing circuit and won by bike lengths ahead of Dylan Groenewegen, with Davide Donati third and Söderqvist fourth.

It was Merlier's second victory of the 2026 edition and the 80th professional road win of his career — a milestone for the 33-year-old former European champion. Unibet Rose Rockets had seized control of the front in the final two kilometres for Groenewegen, and Lukáš Kubiš briefly threatened after opening a gap on one of the final corners, but Merlier was alert to the danger and nobody could respond once he went.

The day's breakaway — Marijn Maas, Mattanja Woets and Rick Ottema, the latter featuring in his fourth escape of the race — and, wearing the red most-combative jersey, riding the final road race of his professional career — was joined and then left behind by 19-year-old Michiel Mouris, who rode solo until the peloton swept him up with 7.5 kilometres remaining. Soudal Quick-Step and Visma | Lease a Bike controlled the tempo for the stage win and the GC respectively, and a crash in one of the closing turns brought down riders from Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Lotto-Intermarché, fortunately without worse consequences.

Riding for more than a jersey

Campenaerts' triumph carried meaning beyond the result sheet. Throughout the week, the Visma riders pledged to donate all of their Eneco Tour prize money to the charity Ieder kind een fiets — Every Child a Bike. "Let's defend the leader's jersey so that we can donate as much as possible," Campenaerts said on Friday evening, and the team duly obliged, controlling the race whenever it mattered.

It is the thirteenth victory of Campenaerts' career — a palmarès that includes a Tour de France stage win in 2024, a Giro d'Italia stage in 2021, two European time-trial titles and the 2019 Hour Record of 55.089 kilometres — but notably his first general classification triumph. For a rider who turned professional in 2014 and built his reputation as a time trialist and breakaway specialist, the overall win fills the most conspicuous gap on his résumé.

Final general classification: 1. Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike); 2. Wessel Mouris (Unibet Rose Rockets) at 0:15; 3. Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) at 0:30. Late-career renaissances rarely come sweeter — or with a better cause attached.