Dylan Groenewegen breaks collarbone in Renewi Tour sprint crash, Tim Merlier relegated

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) broke his collarbone on stage 1 of the Renewi Tour, crashing heavily over the line with Tim Merlier after the Soudal-QuickStep rider swung toward him as they sprinted across the Bilzen finish in fourth and fifth.

Merlier—who could be seen putting his hands up in what looked like remonstration as Groenewegen lay on the ground in pain and distress—was relegated to the back of the lead bunch by the race jury for the move in the sprint. That shifted him from fourth to 83rd place on stage 1, but there will be more opportunities for Merlier. His team expects that he will be able to start on Thursday, escaping the hard fall that left him tangled up with Groenewegen with 'some abrasions'.

The race, however, is over for Groenewegen who was spearheading Jayco-AlUla's stage-winning hopes at the five-day Belgian race.

"Unfortunately following the crash on the finish line of stage 1 Renewi Tour, an x-ray has confirmed that Groenewegen has fractured his collarbone and he is likely to have surgery in the coming days," said Jayco-AlUla in a medical update.

The Renewi Tour marked Groenewegen's return to racing after the Tour de France, where he won on stage 6 and continued a run of success which saw him secure victory at Ronde van Limburg in May, a stage at the Tour of Slovenia and the Dutch road race championships in June, before snagging the Grand Tour stage win in Dijon in July.

He was looking to continue his top step visits at Renewi, but on what turned out to be his first and last opportunity at the 2024 edition of the race Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) swept up stage 1 ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Axel Zingle (Cofidis), while Groenewegen was moved up to fourth after Merlier was relegated.

Jayco-AlUla's main goal before the crash had been stage wins with Groenewegen, though another was to see if they could help Kell O'Brien to a high overall placing. That agenda also didn't go exactly as hoped on Wednesday as the Australian lost 28 seconds on stage 1, though at least there was better news for the squad in Spain with Eddie Dunbar netting the stage 11 victory at the Vuelta a España.

The Renewi Tour now moves on to a 15.4km individual time trial on stage 2.