Baloise Belgium Tour: Tim Merlier beats Jasper Philipsen to take stage 2 victory in uphill sprint

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Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) claimed his 11th win of the season and put his name higher on the list of the sport’s fastest sprinters as he beat Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Leasea a Bike) to win the second stage of the Baloise Tour of Belgium in Knokke-Heist.

The slightly uphill drag to the line favoured the Belgian, who won three stages of the Giro d’Italia, the Scheldeprijs, Nokere Koerse, three stages in the UAE Tour and two in the AlUla Tour so far this year.