Kooij edges out Merlier for victory in clash of elite sprinters

With a sprint finish expected on stage four, five riders tried their luck in the breakaway: Jarno Bellens of Baloise Verzekeringen, Jonah Killy of Tarteletto Isorex, Michiel Coppens of BEAT CC p/b Saxo, Maxence Place of Aarco and Michael Vanthourenhout of Pauwels Sauzen.

Unfortunately for the breakaway, the peloton remained alert and never allowed the gap to grow into a significant advantage during the middle part of the stage.

Heading into the final 30 kilometres, Bellens, Killy, Coppens and Place remained at the front of the race. They held a lead of one minute and 50 seconds over a peloton controlled by Alpecin Premier Tech, NSN and Soudal Quick Step.

The breakaway surprisingly held off the peloton until the final 10 kilometres. With the gap still at 30 seconds, the sprint teams were forced to commit all their remaining resources to the chase.

As the kilometres ticked by, the four leaders continued to resist. With four kilometres remaining, they were still out front, although the peloton had reduced their advantage to just 10 seconds.

The breakaway finally began to split with 2.6 kilometres to go, before the remaining riders were caught to set up the expected sprint finish.

NSN moved to the front with several riders in the finale as the team looked to position Biniam Girmay.

The finish could hardly have been closer, with Tim Merlier of Soudal Quick Step and Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM crossing the line almost side by side.

After the officials examined the photo finish, Kooij was declared the winner. The Dutchman had beaten Merlier by the narrowest of margins.

The 2026 Belgium Tour concludes with stage five on Sunday, with Alex Aranburu leading the general classification.