To say Jordi Meeus had a successful last weekend would be anything but an exaggeration. On stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse on Friday, the Belgian sprinter took his first win since a stage of the Volta ao Algarve in February – and then promptly abandoned, flying north to Denmark to take part in the first-ever edition of the Copenhagen Sprint race. Which the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgröhe racer also won.
While the combination of two wins in three days in two WorldTour races 1,300km apart was strikingly impressive, it also raised questions about whether Meeus was permitted to do it. On paper, after all, riders are not allowed to quit one race in order take part in another.
However, as Meeus explained, on this occasion at least, the high number of riders currently on the Red Bull injury roster helped him secure the 13th and 14th wins of his career.
As a result, the Belgian racer got a waiver from the UCI to allow him to end his Tour of Suisse early – where there were, in any case, no more opportunities for sprinters in the stages after his win – and then move on to Denmark.
"We didn't have enough riders to start in Denmark," Meeus, already a winner in Scandinavia in the Tour of Norway last year, told Nieuwsblad, "in part because [teammate and fellow sprinter] Sam Welsford got injured in the Antwerp Port Epic.
"So we asked for a pass from the UCI to let me fly there, and you know the rest of the story. There were no problems – I had a great weekend."
Meeus' near back-to-back victories began with what he called a "brilliant" lead-out from teammate Danny van Poppel in Suisse on stage 6 at Neuhausen am Reinfall, and then was followed by a solo bid for glory at Copenhagen.
"I knew that there was a headwind in the sprint, so I kept myself in the wheel as long as possible. The pack opened up nicely so that I could break out on the right. While my rivals were slowing, I had an 'extra gear' up my sleeve," he explained.
Next stop will be the Belgian Nationals at Binche, where – whether Meeus likes it or not – he'll have to race as a one-man team. But in any case, when it comes to going for what he calls a major goal, the Belgian's morale is boosted by his run of recent success.
"It is a tough circuit, but I do better in a sprint if it's like that," Meeus, a former winner on the Champs-Élysées in the Tour de France but also ninth in Gent-Wevelgem this spring, told Nieuwsblad, naming Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease Bike) as potential contenders .
"As a one-man team, I will have to be a bit lucky and use the other teams' strength to try and have a chance."
