Baloise Belgium Tour

Tim Merlier took a crushing sprint victory on the opening day of the race, after producing a massive acceleration on the uphill finish in Knokke-Heist, which helped him put several bike lengths into his opponents. It was his second success of the month, ten days from the one he got in Brussels Cycling Classic, another race where the Belgian was in a league of his own.

By far the most successful sprinter of the season, with eight wins to his name before Wednesday, Merlier benefitted from another flawless effort of his Soudal Quick-Step teammates, who controlled the escapees, brought them back with plenty of time to spare and neutralized the late attacks before positioning him for the finale. There, the European Champion launched his sprint from the distance, but even so, nobody could get close to him and Tim took a comfortable victory that brought him the race’s first leader’s jersey.

“I know I started the sprint a bit too early, but I had the power to keep it all the way until the finish line. It’s my ninth win of the season and it makes me happy, also because we can enjoy this perfect start to the Tour of Belgium. It’s a good result for our confidence and we’ll continue to work in the same direction in the coming stages, because there will be some more opportunities to leave our mark on the race and we are looking forward to doing this”, a delighted Tim said after his 35th success in the Soudal Quick-Step jersey.

Photo credit: ©Rhode Van Elsen / Getty Images