Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) secured a commanding sprint victory to claim the win at Ronde van Limburg on Wednesday.
The Belgian launched his sprint on the right-side barriers and crossed the line by more than a bike length ahead of runner-up Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Floris Van Tricht (NSN Cycling) in Tongeren.
The race finished on a slight rise to the finish line with Merlier biding his time until jumping inside 200 metres to go, first on the left side of the road, and when he appeared to easily clear his rivals moved to the right side of the road with a large margin over the rest of the field.
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“The final was quite hectic because there were still some attacks. My team was there, and we were still a bit back in the bunch. I knew that the last corner was important and I was in good position,” Merlier said.
“It was a good pace and I felt already to launch from far. Gaviria was on my wheel and he is also someone who can go from far, so I decided with 300m to go to launch.”
Ronde van Limburg treated the elite men’s field to a 178.4km race from Hasselt and into Tongeren.
A breakaway of three; Mikita Babovich (Bahrain Victorious Development), Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek), and Jelle Vermoote (Tarteletto-Isorex) held a fast-decreasing one minute over the chasing peloton along the technical roads with 60km remaining.
Withen Philipsen continued on a solo attack move, starting at 54 kilometres to go and ending with 19 kilometres from the line was reeled in, Lotto-Intermarché and Lidl-Trek remained in contention.
The 100-strong bunch blasted onto the final sector of cobbles of Op de Kriezel with Jayco-AIUIa riders and Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) one of the best-placed sprinters.
Lidl-Trek, though were still very much bossing the race as it came into the last 10 kilometres, working for Tim Torn Teutenberg. Of the big favourite, though, Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) there was still no sign.
Seven kilometres from the line, there was a brief move by Florian Sénéchal (Alpecin-Permier Tech), Aimé De Gendt (Pinarell-Q36.5), Jens Verbrugghe (NSN Development), Dries Bondt (Jayco AlUla) and Fabio Van den Bossche (Souda-QuickStep) but when Teutenberg made it across in person, that didn’t work out….
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