'I thought it was over' - Merlier goes deep to win again but rules out Tour green jersey bid

For the second day in succession, the Soudal Quick-Step rider came from a long way back, and for the second day in succession, that late charge carried him to stage victory.

A gap opened in the front end of the peloton on the final corner, and Merlier had considerable ground to make up when he launched his sprint with almost 400m to go. But after chasing down Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Olaj Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM), he simply blasted past them to claim the win.

“I needed to fight for my position all the time until the last minute, just before the corner,” Merlier said. “I was a bit boxed in, and then they almost crashed. I thought it was over, so I gave it a try to come back on the guys who did the lead-out. 

“I was just trying to go for a high finish. Then I was coming with so much speed, and I saw it was 250m to go, so I said I’d give it a try until the finish. But yeah, in the last 50m, I couldn’t push anymore.”

Like Merlier, Biniam Girmay (NSN) had sprinted from a long way back, but the Eritrean couldn’t quite match the Belgian’s speed, crossing the line in second place.

“In this heat, it was a really difficult effort,” said Merlier, who acknowledged that his victory in Bordeaux the previous day had bolstered his confident ahead of this sprint.

“Yeah, it’s mostly like this. If you win one, you can win a second, and I’m happy. From three sprint stages, I have won two of them.”

Merlier has now won five stages across his three Tour appearances, and his haul on this year’s race has brought him to within touching distance of Mads Pedersen’s green jersey. But although Merlier is now just 15 points behind Pedersen, he downplayed the prospect of making a run at the points classification.

“I’ve always dreamt of wearing that jersey once in the Tour de France – but he’s so strong that tomorrow he’ll pick up enough points again to stay well ahead of us,” Merlier said. 

Merlier also confessed that he had struggled when the peloton split on the climb of the Côte de Buisson-de-Cadouin in the finale, and he paid tribute to the help of teammate Valentin Paret-Peintre.

“After that last little climb, I was overheated. I needed a moment to recover, but luckily Valentin arrived just in time with ice and water bottles,” he told Sporza. “I have to thank my team again.”