Tim Merlier cruises to second stage win at Renewi Tour
It was a tense game of cat and mouse between the breakaway and peloton in the finale of stage 4.
Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) sprinted to victory on stage 4 of the Renewi Tour in Bilzen-Hoeselt ahead of Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) in 2nd, and Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike) in 3rd.
There was a strong six-rider breakaway that pushed the peloton all the way, making for a tense and frantic finale. However, the catch was made with 2km remaining, and the sprinter's showdown followed.
In the end, Merlier proved to have timed his sprint to perfection and was the fastest, claiming his second win at this year’s Renewi Tour and 14th victory of the season.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) successfully defended his race lead ahead of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in second and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in third with one final stage remaining on Sunday.
Six riders formed the day’s breakaway: Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Michel Ries (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Colby Simmons (EF Education-EasyPost), Ward Vanhoof (Flanders-Baloise), and Leander Van Hautegem (Wagner Bazin WB).
The breakaway swept up the seconds at the Green KM and still held a strong advantage of around 2:40 with 40km remaining.
Soudal-QuickStep forced the impetus behind in the chase as it became clear that the gap wasn’t going to just close on its own inside the final 30km, and other teams also got involved with the chase. Meanwhile, Ries was the first rider to be distanced from the breakaway.
The gap breached the sub two-minute mark with 23 kilometres remaining, with both the breakaway and the peloton working hard, pushing high watt and rattling along at fast speeds. By 14km remaining, the gap was at the one-minute mark, as there were plenty of teams committed to the chase behind.
Van Hautegem was next to be dropped from the breakaway with 5km remaining, before De Bondt launched one final acceleration with only Kubiš able to follow. However, it proved not to be enough as the duo were caught by the marauding bunch with 2km remaining.
Jayco AlUla led under the flamme rouge, with sprinter Dylan Groenewegen in the wheels. Edoardo Affini then found himself with a small gap, before the sprint was launched with Olav Kooij going early on the left-hand side of the road. However, the imperious European champion launched on the right-hand side and cruised to the win.
