Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) took the second stage win of the Renewi Tour in Hoeselt on stage 4, handily out-pacing Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) in Bilzen-Hoeselt.
Merlier had to find his way out of the cluster in the final 300 metres, trying first to follow Kooij but then seeing no way through. Finding a hole on the right as Kooij opened his sprint on the left, Merlier shot out of the pack to snatch the victory as Kooij faded.
“This one is a really difficult finish, but the guys brought me into good position," Merlier said. "We were then a bit boxed in the last 500 metres, but I could come out. At first, Kooij was in the lead, but I think he went a bit too early and I felt he couldn’t hold it. He was slowing down and it was enough for me to win.
"I was a bit boxed in. We were on the side of Kooij, but it didn’t open, so I chose the other side and then it was all-in until the finish.”
Bittner also made his way through, although a hair too late to overtake Merlier. He just managed to edge out Kooij for second on the stage in a photo finish.
Race leader Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) was unable to feature in the sprint but held onto the jersey ahead of the final stage, with second placed Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) missing out on the bonus seconds.
Van der Poel continues to be second overall with a single second separating him from the overall victory ahead of a lumpy final stage around Leuven. Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG) is third at 21 seconds.
The day's breakaway moved clear in the first kilometres, with five riders: Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Michel Ries (Akréa-B&B Hotels), Colby Simmons (EF Education-EasyPost), Ward Vanhoof (Flanders Baloise), Leander Van Hautegem (Wagner Bazin WB) and Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets), opening up a gap of over four minutes. Reis let go of the breakaway with 40km to go.
Inside the final 10 kilometres, the escapees still had 40 seconds in hand as Soudal-Quickstep, UAE Team Emirates and Picnic-PostNL led the chase, halving that in just a few kilometres.
With 3km to go, Kubiš and De Bondt continued to fight as the rest of their companions were caught, but they could not hold off the charging peloton as the lead-out trains assembled.
Kooij opened up his sprint early but once Merlier found his freedom, he overtook the Dutchman along with Bittner.
Results
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