'The communication was better today' - Merlier stays calm amid chaos to crush Tour sprint

The Soudal Quick-Step rider was once again most adept at navigating his way through the ebb and flow of the bunch in the final kilometre before he delivered a thunderous sprint to win ahead of Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech).

The hilly finale was marked by a volley of attacks from Lidl-Trek, who were seeking to burn off the pure fast men on behalf of green jersey Mads Pedersen, but Merlier held firm to remain in contention ahead of the sprint.

Merlier confessed afterwards that at first he wasn’t fully aware of the split in the peloton due to a problem with his radio earpiece. 

“I think my radio was broken and I was all the time busy with the radio,” Merlier said. “There was an attack with 27 riders or something, so I didn’t know. But then we got over a little climb, and I saw it was only one [climb] to go and I wasn’t suffering as hard as the other days, so I knew I was going to get over the other one also. Once I got over the last one in a good position, I got extra motivation.” 

Although Merlier’s last man Jasper Stuyven suffered a slow puncture in the finale, nothing could stall his progress. In the finishing straight, he had the calm to freewheel momentarily in order to come around Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) before unleashing his devastating sprint.

“I think Jasper was not sure anymore to do the lead-out, but I say to stay calm and the tyre sealed,” Merlier said. “I think the communication today was much better between us. I said to him to stay calm and he did it, and I think he knew also I was on a good day.”

Merlier acknowledged that he had made an error on Wednesday’s stage to Nevers, when he had to settle for 15th after getting himself boxed in. There would be no repeat here.

“I was really focused on guys who didn’t move yesterday, that was the reason why I was boxed in,” he said. “So today I tried all the time to stay in front of them, and I found some space. I just needed to calm down and then launch again. I knew it was a kind of a finish that suits me.”

On this form, just about every sprint finish suits Merlier, who has now won six Tour stages from his three appearances at the race. His young son Jules was on hand to witness his latest victory.

“It gave me extra motivation,” Merlier said. “I think he’s still young, but maybe he’s going to remember this one later on also.”