It was another perfect outcome for Soudal-Quick Step on the second pure sprint day of the Tour de France as Tim Merlier took back-to-back stage wins in Bergerac.
It was not a day without drama or jeopardy, though, with breakaway rider Liam Slock surviving until about 1,600 metres to go, not to mention an attempt at fireworks from non-sprint teams 40 km from the finish. And then a slightly chaotic last few kilometres left Merlier alone and out of position going through the last corner 600 metres from the line. The stage 7 winner started his sprint from about 13th position and had a small gap to jump across to regain contact with the Alpecin-Premier Tech-led sprint, but Merlier was coming with so much speed that he made rounding the group and surging to the finish line look easy. Which of course it was not.
"It didn’t feel like this!" Merlier said when told 'You were the boss' at the finish. "I need to fight for my position, all the time, until the last metres. Just before the last corner, I was a bit boxed in, then I almost crashed and I thought it was over, so I gave it a try to get back to the guys who did the leadout. Then, I was coming with so much speed, so I just gave it a try to the finish. But, yeah, in the last 50 metres I can’t push anymore."
Biniam Girmay finished a strong second ahead of Olav Kooij, with Jasper Philipsen taking fourth after another leadout from Mathieu van der Poel, and getting somewhat boxed in in the last hundred metres.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89783 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89783 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
Did we do a good job with this story?
