Merlier dominates again with victory on Eneco Tour stage 1

Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) won stage 1 of the Eneco Tour in Ede, taking the bunch sprint from Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) after 120.7km of racing.

It is the 79th professional win of Merlier’s career, and the second time this year he and Groenewegen have finished first and second after the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen in September.

Thijssen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) was third ahead of Christophe Laporte fourth and David Dekker. 

Luke Verburg (Azerion/Villa Valkenburg), Rick Ottema (EEW-VDK) and Johan Dorussen (Metec-SOLARWATT) formed the break of the day, but their lead never went beyond 20 seconds.

Dorussen took the Red Bull KM bonification sprint at 95km from Ottema and Verburg, collecting six bonus seconds.

Soudal Quick-Step, Team Picnic PostNL and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe shared the chase, with Frank van den Broek and later Bert Van Lerberghe working on the front. Dorussen and Verburg both made late attempts to attack from the break, but the move was brought back with 10km remaining.

BEAT CC p/b Saxo came to the front with four riders inside the final 3km for Dekker, while Van Lerberghe took over for Soudal inside the last kilometre. Merlier opened his sprint with 300 metres to go and nobody came past. 

It continues a strong autumn. Merlier won the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen and the Omloop van het Houtland in September, and has 13 wins for Soudal Quick-Step this season.

Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) retains the overall lead after winning Tuesday evening’s prologue. He leads Wessel Mouris by a second with Laporte third on the same time.