Kris Boeckmans beat Napolitano and Bazzana to win the last stage of the World Ports Classic, and he took the overall as Andrea Guardini faded and lost his GC lead.

127 riders departed Antwerp for the 165km stage to Rotterdam under sunshine. Andrea Guardini entered the stage looking to keep hold of his GC lead.

The bunch was kept together early on so that the sprinters could fight for the bonus seconds and Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal) beat Rudy Barbier (Roubaix Lille Metropole) and Guardini of Astana. Boeckmans got 3 seconds, Barbier 2, Guardini 1.

Then a six man break was established: Pieter Van Speybrouck (Topsport), Tim de Troyer (Wanty), Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare), Alex Kirsch (Cult), Sjoerd Kouwenhoven (Metec), Jetse Bol (De Rijke).

81.5km into the race they had a maximum gap of 2”55, but that came down to just 1”20 at 46km to go. 

Vanspeybrouck beat Kirsch and Ratto to take the second intermediate sprint of the day.

At 8km to go, Guardini was dropped from the peloton with some sort of mechancical, but just 3km later Astana got their team leader back, just as the break was absorbed.

But he was evidently tired and wasn’t able to feature and the pace was really upped by Lotto-Soudal, who could smell blood.

Heading into the final km, there was a really small peloton and only 15 riders would be credited with the same time as the leader. 

In the sprint, after finishing third yesterday, Boeckmans was delivered to the line perfectly and he held off Danilo Napolitano (Wanty) and Alessandro Bazzana of United HealthCare to take the stage, GC and Points Classications, taking a triple success. Barbier took the young rider’s jersey and Lotto-Soudal capped off a great weekend with the best team prize.

The men behind Boeckmans on the final two steps of the podium of final GC were Napolitano and Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R).