Wellens' win was the first for his team Lotto-Soudal since the death of their young Belgian star Bjorg Lambrecht at last week’s Tour de Pologne.

The winning time for the 96.2 kilometres route that started and finished in Houffalize was 2 hours 20min 41sec.

Under-23 world champion Hirschi, who rides for Team Sunweb and narrowly missed out on his first victory on the International Cycling Union WorldTour, is four seconds behind Wellens in the general classification standings.

A further 10 seconds back is Belgium’s Laurens De Plus of Team Jumbo-Visma after he finished five seconds behind the top two in third place today.

Overnight leader Sam Bennett of Bora-Hansgrohe was dropped early in the day as the Irishman failed to build upon his hat-trick of wins in the opening three stages.

"I think I was favourite for today, which isn't easy to handle," Wellens told Eurosport.

"It was a strange race today because nobody really believed in victory.

"There was no real team to take control of the race. 

"We were a little group in the end and we arrived at the line as a three."

Lambrecht died after falling during stage three of the Tour de Pologne.

He was laid to rest on Tuesday (August 13) in the Church of Saint Willibrordus in Knesselare in Belgium.

The fifth stage of the BinckBank Tour is due to take place tomorrow.

It is a 191.4km route from Riemst to Venray.