The name of Jordi Meeus has been added today to the roll of honor of Binche-Chimay-Binche. The Belgian was the fastest in the sprint after an exciting edition of the Walloon one-day race—in which attacks followed one after another. Meeus beat Nils Eekhoff and Christophe Laporte on the rising cobbles of Pépinière.
The cycling season is truly winding down now, but racing still continues, including on Belgian soil. Tuesday marked a new edition of Binche-Chimay-Binche. In this Walloon semi-classic, a sprint is never far off, but the course does invite attacks. Arnaud De Lie and Tim Merlier had to withdraw at the last minute from this race, but there were still plenty of other interesting names at the start.
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 |  Jordi Meeus |
| 2024 | Arnaud De Lie |
| 2023 |  Luca Mozzato |
| 2022 |  Christophe Laporte |
| 2021 |  Danny van Poppel |
| 2019 | Tom Van Asbroeck |
| 2018 | Danny van Poppel |
| 2017 | Jasper De Buyst |
| 2016 | Arnaud Démare |
| 2015 | Ramon Sinkeldam |
After a longer and more uneven approach—with the Petit Poggio (700 meters at 6.4%) and the famous Muur van Thuin (500 meters at 7.8%) as the main troublemakers on the route—the finale would explode on the now familiar local circuit around Binche. The only official obstacle was the rising cobbles of Pépinière, just under 900 meters from the finish, where the peloton often tears apart, but never really breaks.
Definitely not a traditional lead-in to the finale
In an entertaining opening phase, attacks kept flying off one after another, but a successful early break never materialized. Still, the riders threw themselves full throttle into the race, hoping to force something. This barrage of attacks separated the wheat from the chaff early on. With seventy kilometers to go, the peloton split into two groups. The biggest absentee at the front of the race: top favorite Philipsen.
photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
The leader of Alpecin-Deceuninck had found himself in the second group and struggled mightily to right the uneven situation. Up front, the pace never slackened and one attack followed another. This kept the tempo high and thinned out the group even further, although it proved difficult to actually open a gap. However, this was the final blow for Philipsen, as the speedy Belgian never rejoined the race leaders.
Three riders take up the fight
Back at the front, three riders had managed after some persistence to build a meaningful gap. Dylan Vandenstorme (Team Flanders-Baloise), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Emirates XRG) joined forces and rode ahead of the pack for a while, but in the now significantly thinned peloton, Israel-Premier Tech and Picnic PostNL were seen taking care of the hard work.
This kept the gap within limits and left everything still open for the finale. Bjerg and Thierry (Vandenstorme had meanwhile been dropped) kept plowing forward stubbornly and bravely but seemed like two birds for the proverbial cat. In pursuit, Visma | Lease a Bike—with powerhouse Victor Campenaerts as the main engine—had positioned itself at the front. The Dutch team decided to shift tactics and went all in to launch Christophe Laporte’s sprint.
However, competing teams were not willing to cooperate and once again opted for the attack, but there was no way through: the interest in a sprint was too strong. Andreas Stokbro (Unibet Tietema Rockets) made a last-ditch effort to avoid the sprint and even bridged to the two leaders, but it was all in vain. Led by various teams, the race inevitably came down to a showdown of the fast men.
Meeus versus Eekhoff
It was Jonas Abrahamsen who managed to string out the peloton on the rising cobbles of the Pépinière, but the Norwegian launched his sprint too early and mostly served as a perfect lead-out for Jordi Meeus. The fast man from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe came out at the right moment and was strong enough to hold off Nils Eekhoff and Christophe Laporte in the final, tricky meters.
The 27-year-old Meeus recorded his fourth win of the season in Binche, after previous successes this year at the Volta ao Algarve, Tour of Switzerland, and Copenhagen Sprint.
🚴🇧🇪 | Jordi Meeus appears at the perfect moment upfront and finishes it off. A Belgian winner in the last Walloon race of the year. 👏
📺 Stream the race on HBO Max pic.twitter.com/flTaAyl4vA
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) October 7, 2025
Thierry and Bjerg tried to avoid a sprint - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
Binche - Chimay - Binche / Mémorial Frank Vandenbroucke| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 04:13:47 | |
| 2 | " | |
| 3 | " | |
| 4 | " | |
| 5 | " | |
| 6 | " | |
| 7 | " | |
| 8 | " | |
| 9 | " | |
| 10 | " |
