Merlier rockets to another Tour stage win with stunning late charge

Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) claimed his second win in as many days on the Tour de France with a devastating sprint in Bergerac. Like in Bordeaux, the Belgian had a lot of ground to make up in the finishing straight, but his late charge carried him to an emphatic victory ahead of Biniam Girmay (NSN) and Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM).

The stage looked set for Jasper Philipsen, who was led out expertly by his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Mathieu van der Poel, but the Belgian was swarmed in the closing metres and he had to settle for a disappointed fourth.

Liam Slock (Lotto Intermarché) was the last man standing from the day’s early break, and the Belgian almost managed to fend off the peloton after bidding his erstwhile companions farewell on the climb of the Côte du Buisson-de-Cadouin with 40km to go.

The Belgian, whose dramatic victory at the GP Gippingen last month went viral, came close to a different kind of late surprise here, but he was eventually swept up by the bunch with a shade over a kilometre to go.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey of race leader. He remains 2:42 clear of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike) and 3:27 up on teammate Isaac del Toro ahead of Sunday’s hilly run to Ussel.

The terrain was slightly more rugged than the preceding afternoon, but there was little prospect of the sprinters being denied on the road to Bergerac. The sprinters’ teams weren’t taking any chances, and dangerman Kasper Asgreen’s attempts to force the early break were swiftly snuffed out.

The break of the day formed soon afterwards, with Liam Slock (Lotto Intermarché), Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies) and Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) forging clear. The trio quickly established a lead of two minutes, and the race settled into a familiar holding pattern, with Soudal Quick-Step and Alpecin-Deceuninck policing the peloton behind.

Slock mopped up the mountains point on offer on the category 4 Côte de Domme, but there was precious little to shake the race from its torpor until the intermediate sprint at Saint-Cyprien with 57km to go, where Jasper Philipsen pipped Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in a spirited tussle for third place

The speed, already brisk, ratcheted upwards further from there on the approach to the category 4 Côte du Buisson-de-Cadouin, where the race took on a different dimension. Out in front, Slock struck out alone with 40km to go as the break fragmented on the climb, while Asgreen forced a split in the peloton, bringing a group of strongmen with him that included Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Jan Tratnik (Red Bull) and Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos).

The sprinters’ teams, however, quickly knitted the bunch back together over the other side, and they now set about chasing down Slock, who still had 1:20 in hand as he entered the final 20km.

Slock continued to put up fierce resistance, and he clung to a lead of a minute with 10km to go, but there would be no denying the fast men in Bergerac.