The Belgian all but wins the green jersey after a phenomenal sprint in Abu Dhabi.
Tim Merlier confirmed he is the best sprinter in the UAE Tour, taking a second victory at the World Tour event in what was the last opportunity for the fast men before the Jebel Hafeet summit finish, where the general classification will be decided.
Victorious on the opening day of the race, Merlier remained incredibly calm in the Abu Dhabi hectic mass gallop, finding a small breach on the left-hand side of the road with around 500 meters to go and coming past all his opponents. Just like on Monday, the 30-year-old opened from the distance, but this time there was no need for a photo-finish, as he put several bike lengths into his rivals thanks to a huge burst of speed on the way to his third win of the season.
“I am happy with this victory and the team’s good day. It was another chaotic sprint, you could see there wasn’t any team to control things in the finale. But I had Bert by my side and that was all I needed. He’s a very good and experience lead-out man, we get along so well and he once again did a great job”, said Tim, who extended his lead in the points classification following this success. “Winning in green feels good. It’s my third victory of the season and I’m really glad that I’m off to such a perfect start with Soudal Quick-Step.”
Merlier was joined on the podium by his teammate Remco Evenepoel, who retained the red jersey which the World Champion will now try to bring home: “We’ll see what happens on Sunday, but what I can tell you is that we will try to control things and defend the GC lead, that’s our biggest goal. The nine-second gap that I have isn’t a lot, but it’s better than nothing, so we are prepared to do our best in order to win the race.”
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
