Tim Wellens

Tim Wellens (born 10 May 1991) is a Belgian professional road cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam .

Since turning professional in 2012, and coming from a family of professional cyclists, Wellens has taken almost forty professional victories including a record four overall victories (2014, 2015, 2023, 2024) – as well as four stage wins – in the Benelux Tour. Further to this, Wellens has taken UCI World Tour victories at the 2015 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the 2016 Tour de Pologne and the 2017 Tour of Guangxi. He has also won five Grand Tour stages – one each at the 2016 Giro d'Italia and the 2018 Giro d'Italia, two at the 2020 Vuelta a España, and one at the 2025 Tour de France – and the Belgian National Time Trial Championships in 2024.

Career Born in Sint-Truiden, Wellens rode as a junior for the Avia Cycling Team alongside the likes of Dylan Teuns and Gijs Van Hoecke, before riding for two-and-half seasons with the development team. He won the young rider classification at the 2012 Circuit des Ardennes, prior to turning professional in the middle of that season, joining the team.

Lotto–Belisol (2012–2022) 2012–2014 Wellens made his début with the team at the 2012 GP José Dubois, where he finished eighth; he later made his first appearances on the UCI World Tour, by competing in the Canadian pair of races in Quebec and Montreal, attempting to bridge to each race's breakaway during the respective events. Wellens performed strongly in the season-ending Tour of Beijing, finishing each of the race's stages inside the top 25 placings – taking a best of fifth on the final stage – en route to a final overall finish of tenth, and second to rider Rafał Majka in the young rider classification.

In his first full season with the team in 2013, Wellens recorded his best overall finish at the Tour de Wallonie, where he finished in eighth place. He also finished second in both the mountains and young rider classifications, losing out on the latter on countback to compatriot Olivier Chevalier. Wellens made his Grand Tour début at the Giro d'Italia. During the race, he recorded two second-place stage finishes – on stage six behind overall leader Michael Matthews at Monte Cassino, and stage seventeen behind Stefano Pirazzi in Vittorio Veneto. After another second-place finish in the general classification, to Philippe Gilbert, at June's Ster ZLM Toer, Having assumed the race leader's white jersey, Wellens maintained his seven-second race lead through the final stage for the overall victory. Before the end of the season, Wellens recorded further high placings at the GP Ouest-France (sixth) and the Giro di Lombardia (fourth).

2015 Wellens started the season with finishes of tenth in the Trofeo Andratx–Mirador d'Es Colomer and second in the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana one-day races held as part of the Vuelta a Mallorca, and also finished tenth overall at Paris–Nice. Wellens made his first start at the Tour de France, but he later described his race performance as "really bad". During stage six of August's Eneco Tour, Wellens attacked on the Côte Saint-Roch, then won nine seconds in the sprints in the golden kilometre. The main group was not able to chase Wellens down and his lead extended during the downhill run into Houffalize; he won the stage by 49 seconds ahead of Greg Van Avermaet, with Simon Geschke third. Wellens moved into the overall lead, 1' 03" ahead of Van Avermaet, with Wilco Kelderman dropping to third. The following month, Wellens won his first one-day race as a professional, winning the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in a sprint against Adam Yates, after the duo broke clear of the field in the closing stages.

2016

Wellens won the final stage of Paris–Nice; having been a part of the day's breakaway, Wellens was its last survivor and remained clear until the final climb of Col d'Èze, where he was caught by Richie Porte and Alberto Contador. The trio worked together on the descent, as Porte and Contador were chasing the general classification victory, but Wellens ultimately won the sprint on the Promenade des Anglais. Having placed in the top ten at the Amstel Gold Race, Wellens won the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia, attacking from the breakaway, that he had earlier bridged across to, with around remaining before the finish in Roccaraso – for his first Grand Tour stage win.

A second-place finish to Philippe Gilbert at the Belgian National Road Race Championships followed, before he took another solo victory, winning the fifth stage of the 2016 Tour de Pologne into Zakopane after a solo move in driving rain. Wellens ultimately won the stage by almost 4 minutes, while further back, a total of 85 riders abandoned the race. With the penultimate stage cancelled due to bad weather, Wellens ultimately won the race by more than four minutes, also winning the sprints and mountains classifications. He was later selected to ride for Belgium in the road race and the time trial at the Rio Olympics.

2017 Wellens took three early-season victories in Spain, as he won the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana and Trofeo Andratx–Mirador d'Es Colomer one-day races – part of the Vuelta a Mallorca – on consecutive days in January, before winning the final stage of the Vuelta a Andalucía from a small lead group the following month. At Strade Bianche, Wellens was one of four riders that went clear of the field with around remaining, but was ultimately beaten to the finish in Siena by Michał Kwiatkowski and Greg Van Avermaet. Wellens abandoned the Tour de France during stage 15, because of heat and pollen allergies which he refused to treat with a therapeutic use exemption (TUE), which he does not approve to use. Despite having asthma, Wellens does not use an inhaler and likened such usage to "cheating".

Wellens won the penultimate stage of the BinckBank Tour into Houffalize, getting the better of Tom Dumoulin in a sprint à deux. He was unable to overturn his four-second pre-stage deficit to Dumoulin on the final stage, with Dumoulin ultimately prevailing by seventeen seconds in the general classification. After a fifth-place finish at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, Wellens won the Grand Prix de Wallonie after a solo move from a lead group of around twenty riders that had formed in the windy conditions. He completed the season with seven victories in total, as he added a stage win and the general classification victory at the inaugural Tour of Guangxi.

2018

His first victory of the 2018 season came at the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana, winning the race for the second year in a row. At the Vuelta a Andalucía, Wellens won stage 4 and took the lead of the overall standings, by beating Mikel Landa on the cobbled climb of Alcalá de los Gazules. He held the lead through the final individual time trial in Barbate, taking the overall victory by eight seconds from Wout Poels. He then finished fifth overall at Paris–Nice, winning the points classification as a result of five top-ten stage finishes across the eight-stage race. At Brabantse Pijl, Wellens attacked with around remaining before the finish in Overijse, ultimately soloing to victory by nine seconds over a group of six riders. He concluded the spring classics portion of the season with top-ten finishes at the Amstel Gold Race (sixth) and La Flèche Wallonne (seventh).

Wellens won the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia, winning on an uphill finish in Caltagirone on Sicily, for his second career stage victory at the race. He ultimately had to withdraw from the race prior to the final rest day due to illness. Later in the season, Wellens won the second stage of the Tour de Wallonie into Namur, taking the overall lead in the process. Having lost the lead to Quinten Hermans by three seconds prior to the final stage, Wellens was able to gain the time back at intermediate sprints, and took the race victory on countback from Hermans. He then recorded third-place finishes at the BinckBank Tour and the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France, and also finished in fifth place at Il Lombardia – after which he cycled a journey back to Belgium with teammate Thomas De Gendt, following his seven-win season.

2019 Wellens started the 2019 season with a block of racing in Spain, starting at the Vuelta a Mallorca one-day races – where he finished fifth in the Trofeo Ses Salines, second in the Trofeo Andratx–Lloseta, before taking a third consecutive victory in the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana. He then took two stage victories at the Vuelta a Andalucía, including winning on the cobbled climb of Alcalá de los Gazules for the second year in succession. After this, he recorded third-place finishes at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in March, Brabantse Pijl in April, and June's Tour of Belgium, where he also won the individual time trial on stage three.

At the Tour de France, Wellens took the lead in the mountains classification following the third stage, having attacked from a five-rider lead group with around remaining. He held the mountains classification lead until stage 17 – having featured in multiple further breakaways – ceding the jersey to Romain Bardet, who would go on to win the jersey. Following the Tour de France, Wellens finished third overall at the BinckBank Tour; having won the fourth stage to take the race lead, Wellens lost more than 40 seconds on the final stage into Geraardsbergen, and dropped behind Laurens De Plus and Oliver Naesen in the general classification. Wellens recorded four more top-ten finishes before the end of the season, but no podium results.

2020–2022 Wellens started 2020 with a fifth-place finish at the Volta ao Algarve, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced suspension of racing. Following a fifth-place finish at the Tour de Luxembourg, Wellens rode the Vuelta a España for the first time in his career. He won two stages during the race, and finished second to Guillaume Martin in the mountains classification.

With the Vuelta a Mallorca races postponed to late-spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, Wellens started his 2021 season racing in France, making several attacks in a sixth-place finish at the Grand Prix La Marseillaise. In his next start, at the Étoile de Bessèges, Wellens won the third stage with a solo attack to take the race lead, and ultimately held on to the general classification lead for the remainder of the race. Over the remainder of the season, Wellens took three top-ten overall finishes in UCI World Tour stage races: seventh at Tirreno–Adriatico, sixth at the Tour de Pologne, and fourth at the renamed Benelux Tour.

Wellens took his fourth victory at the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana in January 2022, winning a small group sprint. Having finished in the top ten placings in two of the other Vuelta a Mallorca races, Wellens also took a second-place finish at the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior, behind Alexey Lutsenko. He then won the second stage of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var, beating Nairo Quintana to the line in La Turbie to take the leader's jersey. Quintana would go on to win the race on the final day, while Wellens finished 90 seconds behind – but this was still good enough to finish in second overall. Before the end of the spring, Wellens had also recorded top-ten finishes at Strade Bianche (eighth), and Brabantse Pijl (ninth), having been relegated from the podium of the latter due to an irregular sprint. His best result for the remainder of the season was a second-place overall finish at the Tour of Belgium, finishing in the same time as race winner Mauro Schmid – having been denied bonus seconds at intermediate sprint points by Schmid's teammate Yves Lampaert impeding him, a move for which Lampaert was disqualified for.

UAE Team Emirates (2023–present) After a decade with , Wellens joined on a two-year contract from the 2023 season. Wellens started his season with a block of racing in Spain, recording his first podium finish with the team: a third-place result at the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior in February. The following week, he took his first win, taking the third stage of the Vuelta a Andalucía – which finished at Alcalá de los Gazules, on a cobbled climb where Wellens had previously won in 2018 and 2019. Having missed the Tour de France as a result, Wellens took one further victory during the season – the general classification at the Renewi Tour, Following a third-place finish at Brabantse Pijl in April, Wellens signed a one-year contract extension with , until the end of the 2025 season. In June, Wellens won his first national title at elite level, when he won the Belgian National Time Trial Championships in Binche, finishing nine seconds ahead of Alec Segaert. He rode in support of Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France, but found individual success in some of the UCI World Tour races that followed the Tour de France. He won the second stage, an individual time trial, at the Tour de Pologne, before taking a fourth overall victory at the Renewi Tour, taking the leader's jersey from Segaert on the final day.

Personal life Wellens is married with a son, born in 2022. His father Leo Wellens and uncles Paul Wellens and Johan Wellens all competed professionally in cycling during the 1970s and the 1980s.

Major results Source:

2008 1st Cross-country, National Junior Mountain Bike Championships 4th Overall Liège–La Gleize 2009 2nd Overall Tour d'Istrie 1st Stage 1 3rd Overall Tre Giorni Orobica 5th Road race, National Junior Road Championships 5th Overall Liège–La Gleize 1st Stage 4 2010 7th Overall Tour des Pays de Savoie 2011 5th Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships 5th Overall Tour des Pays de Savoie 2012 2nd Overall Toscana-Terra di Ciclismo 2nd Overall Vuelta a Navarra 4th Circuit de Wallonie 8th Overall Circuit des Ardennes 1st Young rider classification 10th Overall Tour de l'Avenir 10th Overall Tour of Beijing 2013 8th Overall Tour de Wallonie 2014 (2 pro wins) 1st Overall Eneco Tour 1st Stage 6 2nd Time trial, National Road Championships 2nd Overall Ster ZLM Toer 4th Giro di Lombardia 6th GP Ouest-France 2015 (3) 1st Overall Eneco Tour 1st Stage 6 1st Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal 2nd Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 10th Overall Paris–Nice 10th Trofeo Andratx–Mirador d'Es Colomer 2016 (4) 1st Overall Tour de Pologne 1st Mountains classification 1st Sprints classification 1st Stage 5 Giro d'Italia 1st Stage 6 Held after Stages 7–9 1st Stage 7 Paris–Nice 2nd Road race, National Road Championships 10th Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 10th Amstel Gold Race 2017 (7) 1st Overall Tour of Guangxi 1st Stage 4 1st Grand Prix de Wallonie 1st Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 1st Trofeo Andratx–Mirador d'Es Colomer 1st Stage 5 Vuelta a Andalucía 2nd Overall BinckBank Tour 1st Stage 6 3rd Strade Bianche 4th Brabantse Pijl 5th Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 9th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 2018 (7) 1st Overall Tour de Wallonie 1st Stage 2 1st Overall Vuelta a Andalucía 1st Stage 4 1st Brabantse Pijl 1st Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 1st Stage 4 Giro d'Italia 3rd Overall BinckBank Tour 3rd Bretagne Classic 5th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Points classification 5th Giro di Lombardia 6th Amstel Gold Race 7th La Flèche Wallonne 7th Trofeo Lloseta–Andratx 2019 (5) 1st Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 2nd Trofeo Andratx–Lloseta 3rd Overall BinckBank Tour 1st Stage 4 3rd Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Stage 3 (ITT) 3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 3rd Brabantse Pijl 4th Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal 5th Trofeo Campos, Porreres, Felanitx, Ses Salines 8th Bretagne Classic 9th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1 & 3 (ITT) 9th Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 10th Strade Bianche 10th Tre Valli Varesine Tour de France Held after Stages 3–17 Combativity award Stages 3 & 6 2020 (2) Vuelta a España 1st Stages 5 & 14 Held after Stages 5–6 4th Overall Tour de Luxembourg 5th Overall Volta ao Algarve 2021 (2) 1st Overall Étoile de Bessèges 1st Stage 3 4th Overall Benelux Tour 6th Overall Tour de Pologne 6th Grand Prix La Marseillaise 7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 2022 (2) 1st Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana 2nd Overall Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var 1st Stage 2 2nd Overall Tour of Belgium 2nd Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 4th Trofeo Calvià 8th Strade Bianche 8th Trofeo Pollença–Port d'Andratx 9th Brabantse Pijl 9th Japan Cup 2023 (2) 1st Overall Renewi Tour 1st Stage 3 Vuelta a Andalucía 3rd Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 5th Overall Tour of Guangxi 5th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne 6th Vuelta a Murcia 2024 (3) 1st Time trial, National Road Championships 1st Overall Renewi Tour 1st Stage 2 (ITT) Tour de Pologne 2nd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne 3rd Brabantse Pijl 3rd Vuelta a Murcia 4th E3 Saxo Classic 4th Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 6th Grand Prix de Wallonie 7th Overall Tour of Guangxi 2025 (2) 1st Road race, National Road Championships Tour de France 1st Stage 15 Held after Stages 3 & 6–9 UCI Gravel World Series 1st Valkenburg 3rd Overall Renewi Tour 3rd Strade Bianche 5th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía 8th E3 Saxo Classic 8th Vuelta a Murcia 9th Veneto Classic 10th Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 2026 (1) 1st Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior 2nd Time trial, National Road Championships 9th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía

Grand Tour general classification results timeline Grand Tour 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Giro d'Italia 54 — 96 — DNF — — — — — — — Tour de France — 129 — DNF — 94 — — DNF — 80 37 Vuelta a España — — — — — — 78 — — — — —

Classics results timeline Monument 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Milan–San Remo — — — 15 — 18 — — — 78 — 67 56 106 Tour of Flanders — — — — — — — 34 DNF 25 43 DNF 12 DNF Paris–Roubaix — — — — — — — — — — — — 15 DNF Liège–Bastogne–Liège — DNF 43 93 48 35 16 11 33 24 86 — — — Giro di Lombardia 50 —4 71 DNF 205 29 OTL 82 58 — — — Classic 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad — — — — — — 693 28 24 DNS 26 12 46 Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne — NH — — — — — — — 75 —52 71 Strade Bianche — — — — —3 —10 — 138 13 133 E3 Saxo Bank Classic — — — — — — — — NH — — DNF48 Brabantse Pijl — 19 — — 38413 49 —9 —3 — Amstel Gold Race — — 68 1910 426 DNF NH 29 20 — — DNF La Flèche Wallonne — 139 61 31 65 187 17 21 36 23 — — — Clásica de San Sebastián — 102 44 31 13 DNF DNF DNF NH — — — — — Bretagne Classic — 1156 110 96 8338 — — — — — DNF Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec DNF 51 108 120 145 289 Not held — 35 88 80 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal 34 20 241 43 12 214 — DNF DNF DNF

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish DNS Did not start OTL Outside time limit NH Not held