Soudal Quick-Step celebrates its seventh victory in Flanders’ oldest race.
Tim Merlier showed Wednesday afternoon there is a reason why he is the most successful sprinter of the season, taking a crushing success at the 112th edition of Scheldeprijs, the 205.3km race held between Terneuzen and Schoten. The win Merlier got on home turf was made even more impressive by the fact that with just 15 kilometers to go he had a puncture, but a fast bike change and an incredible effort of his Soudal Quick-Step teammates helped the two-time Belgian Champion return to the peloton before things began heating up.
Ahead of the flamme rouge, Tim found himself a bit far back, but Bert Van Lerberghe powered like a locomotive through the middle of the pack, and Merlier immediately glued himself to the wheel of his best friend, moving to the front of the bunch in the space of seconds. On the run-in to the line, the 31-year-old capitalised on Bert’s incredible effort, unleashing a huge turn of speed with 200 meters to go on the left side of the road.
Victorious in six races this season prior to Scheldeprijs, Tim took a crushing sprint win despite launching early, putting several bike lengths into Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), who rounded out the podium at this third-fastest Scheldeprijs edition in history.
“The race was a bit nervous, especially in the first part of the day, with the rain and the echelons. Fortunately, we were in a good position and remained attentive the entire race, even after a regrouping took place. I had some bad luck with that late puncture, but I could come back and then Bert was of great help in the finale. When I felt it was the right moment to go, I opened my sprint and just kept going. I’m delighted with my first win in this race and with sitting on seven victories since the start of the year”, Tim explained after delivering Soudal Quick-Step’s seventh success in Scheldeprijs.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
