William Elliot wins 2017 Tour de Namur overall title

William Elliot of Barrie, Ont. won the overall title at the Tour de Namur on Sunday. Racing for Canadian development Team RaceClean, Elliot defended the leader’s yellow jersey on the races final Stage 5.

Centimeters…… ?. @JordenDeHaes tweede in rit 1b van #tourdeNamur pic.twitter.com/3vCzn8shFC

— EFC-L&R-VULSTEKE (@EFC_LR_VULSTEKE) August 2, 2017

To win stage one of the Tour de Namur, awesome! To do it in the presence of Canada's Ambassador to Belgium, @NicoloffOlivier, honoured! pic.twitter.com/9Qj9LlG58D

— Toronto V.C. (@TorontoVeloClub) August 2, 2017

Team RaceClean started of the race with a strong fifth place on the opening team time trial. Elliot followed that up with a win from a four rider breakaway on Stage 1b.

On Stage 2, Elliot overtook Dieter Bouvry (Pauwels Sauzen – Vastgoedservice) to take the race overall lead coming third from another breakaway.

Meanwhile in Belgium ??; we are seeing YELLOW! #TourDeNamur pic.twitter.com/oy84fcws3t

— Toronto V.C. (@TorontoVeloClub) August 3, 2017

In the Stage 4 time trial, Elliot held onto the yellow jersey with a sixth place performance 33 seconds off the time of stage winner Laurens Sweeck (ERA-Circus) who also won stages 3 and 5 on his way to second overall. Elliot finished fourth behind Sweeck on Stage 5

Sweeck raced the elite men’s cyclocross world championships in Belvaux, Luxembourg in January where he represented Belgium and finishing sixth overall behind winner Wout Van Aert.

This is how we do it! @CyclingCanada #tourdenamur #winnersaregrinners pic.twitter.com/0RiAA8St6B

— Toronto V.C. (@TorontoVeloClub) August 6, 2017

YES!!!!!! @WillElliott25 wins the 70th #tourdenamur Congratulations to all the boys. That is a MASSIVE result! ????? @CyclingCanada

— Toronto V.C. (@TorontoVeloClub) August 6, 2017

Elliot has had a strong week winning the Challenge Jean-Pierre Lekeu overall title last weekend with his results at the Grand Prix de la Centrale and the Grand Prix ColorCode.

Classement général final :
1. William Elliot (Team RaceClean) 13h49’53”
2. Laurens Sweeck (ERA-Circus) 00:07
3. Lennert Teugels (Vérandas Willems-Crelan) 00:41
4. Bjorg Lambrecht (Lotto-Soudal U23) 01:00
5. Dieter Bouvry (Pauwels sauzen-Vastgoedservice) 01:15