Van Wilder fourth in the UAE Tour

Van Wilder fourth in the UAE Tour

Ilan Van Wilder equalled his best result ever in a World Tour race, finishing fourth overall at a hard edition of the UAE Tour, half a year after concluding in the same position at the Tour de Pologne. What made his achievement maybe even more remarkable than the one of last summer is the fact that it came after a very hard week of racing, which included crosswinds, an individual time trial and two tough summit finishes featuring some punishing gradients.

On the last day of the event, which concluded atop the 10.8km Jebel Hafeet, Ilan put in a resilient display once the going got tough, defending his position in the general classification and coming home just a couple of seconds behind winner Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) for what was Soudal Quick-Step’s sixth top 10 result in as many participations at the UAE Tour.

For the second consecutive year, Tim Merlier took home the green jersey, after one of his best outings ever in a World Tour event. The most in-form sprinter since the start of the season, the man from Kortrijk enjoyed an unforgettable week in the Emirates and has now joined Tom Boonen as the only two Belgian riders to have won three stages and the points jersey in a World Tour week-long stage race. Having stomped his authority over the fast finishes in the AlUla Tour and the UAE Tour, the 31-year-old leaves the Middle East with five victories in the bag.

“I am very happy and proud. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better race. The team worked hard for me and I couldn’t have done it without their amazing support. To take three stages and for the second consecutive year the green jersey makes for a perfect race. Together with the two stages I won in Saudi Arabia, this is a great start to my second season with the Wolfpack and I’m already looking forward to returning to Europe and starting my campaign there”, said Tim, whose victory on Saturday was the 960th in the history of Soudal Quick-Step.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
3:38:28
2 Pello Bilbao López de Armentia
Bahrain - Victorious
0:22
3 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:22
4 Michael Storer
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
0:22
5 Attila Valter
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:22
6 Carlos Verona Quintanilla
Lidl - Trek
0:22
7 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
0:27
8 Brandon Smith Rivera Vargas
INEOS Grenadiers
0:38
9 Einer Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
0:38
10 Bart Lemmen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:47
23 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:38
30 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
4:12
77 Ayco Bastiaens
Soudal Quick-Step
14:00
94 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
18:36
95 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
18:36
96 Jordi Warlop
Soudal Quick-Step
18:36
1 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
22:31:18
2 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:02
3 Pello Bilbao López de Armentia
Bahrain - Victorious
0:11
4 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
0:21
5 Attila Valter
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:34
6 Michael Storer
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
0:36
7 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
0:55
8 Brandon Smith Rivera Vargas
INEOS Grenadiers
1:00
9 Carlos Verona Quintanilla
Lidl - Trek
1:09
10 Bart Lemmen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:13
18 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2:12
28 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
5:16
93 Ayco Bastiaens
Soudal Quick-Step
33:49
102 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
36:30
103 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
37:04
104 Jordi Warlop
Soudal Quick-Step
37:12
1 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
76 pt
2 Mark Stewart
Team Corratec - Vini Fantini
56 pt
3 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
48 pt
4 Arvid de Kleijn
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
48 pt
5 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
32 pt
6 Olav Kooij
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
32 pt
7 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
32 pt
8 Pello Bilbao López de Armentia
Bahrain - Victorious
25 pt
9 Phil Bauhaus
Bahrain - Victorious
22 pt
10 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
21 pt
16 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
16 pt
51 Jordi Warlop
Soudal Quick-Step
1 pt
1 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
22:31:18
2 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
0:21
3 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
0:55
4 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
1:27
5 Harold Martín López Granizo
Astana Qazaqstan Team
1:48
6 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2:12
7 Natnael Tesfatsion
Lidl - Trek
3:34
8 Jesús David Peña Jimenez
Team Jayco AlUla
4:02
9 Iván Romeo Abad
Movistar Team
4:34
10 Kevin Colleoni
Intermarché - Wanty
10:23
1 Lidl - Trek 67:38:53
2 Soudal Quick-Step 2:50
3 Bahrain - Victorious 5:26
4 INEOS Grenadiers 6:53
5 Movistar Team 7:40
6 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 11:43
7 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 14:22
8 BORA - hansgrohe 14:51
9 Israel - Premier Tech 20:00
10 UAE Team Emirates 20:30

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