Hectic finale sees European champion lose lead-out and almost crash before slingshotting to second win in two days
Tim Merlier blasts to victory in the headwind sprint at Abu Dhabi Breakwater on stage 6 of the 2025 UAE Tour(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) experienced a whirlwind of emotions in the final two kilometres of today's sprint final at the UAE Tour, from thinking "it was over", to avoiding a crash and then suddenly looking like he'd won at a canter with a devastating long sprint.
It wasn't quite the dramatics of winning a crash-marred sprint before colliding into a soigneur and crashing past the finish as it was yesterday. However, the Belgian is struggling to win a textbook sprint at the moment. Not that it will bother him, particularly, as victories are the only currency he deals in.
The European champion was nowhere near the position he wanted after a change in direction with just under 2km to go squeezed the peloton and saw him get disconnected from right-hand lead-out man Bert Van Lerberghe.
Looking at the overhead view of the peloton after the bunch went under the 1km to go banner, Merlier wasn't even in a picture. How he found a lane to sprint in at all is remarkable, but he somehow managed it with some good timing and fortune, just as he has into Abu Dhabi Breakwater for the past two UAE Tours.
"I was in big trouble today," said Merlier after the finish. "We tried to organise it again like yesterday but I think with the headwind and a narrowing at 1.9km to go, I lost Bert. Then I was behind and he didn't come back and I was already too far.
"I tried to move up but I didn't find a gap and then I had to break a bit too much also for safety reasons with 1.5km to go."
Merlier was forced to pull on the breaks in the physical bunch after bumping shoulders with Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and others looking for an ideal position.
This ended with Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) touching Merlier's back wheel and crashing, also leading to Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) hitting the desk for the second day running.
It was all accidental, but after somehow not crashing himself, Merlier had to refocus and try to muster up something special if he was to challenge for the win, having been pushed back several positions.
Merlier celebrates his second stage win in two days on the podium (Image credit: Getty Images)
At this point, cycling's other two best sprinters – Milan and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – were both better positioned than him. Merlier had to take a chance and shot up the inside, even with the headwind buffeting him, and stormed past the Tudor-led peloton to get a gap.
Then, not only did he outfox his rivals but completely outpowered them.
"I thought it was over," said Merlier. "But then I found a gap with 300 to go and I tried to surprise everyone. I had to hold it to the line and it was a long effort with the headwind but I'm happy I stayed in front.
"I found a gap on the right side and passed guys from Alpecin and Tudor on the front, then saw the other sprinters [had not gone] at that moment. When I launched I knew I had made a good move but if someone with fast legs could follow then it would have been a big problem."
Philipsen, for the first time since Paris-Nice in 2022, leaves a stage race without taking a victory. It's just his first race of the season but the Belgian did concede that he simply doesn't have the top-end speed yet.
"It was chaotic again like every day. Really easy stage and then a really intense final," Philipsen told reporters, including Cyclingnews, at the finish.
"I think it was a fair sprint and Tim was coming with a lot of speed from the back. I was quite OK [positioning-wise], maybe I had to take a bit of wind.
"Of course not all the sprints were perfect but I just missed a little bit of speed I think. I trained really hard the last couple of months but it's just easy spinning every day so it makes it different - I don't have the fastest sprinting legs at the moment."
Merlier didn't quite know what his top speed was in the sprint today but Fabio Jakobsen (Picnic PostNL) told De Telegraaf that he had reached 71kph in the final charge for the line. It's a trend that is only going upwards.
"We will see it later but yesterday was like 72kph or something," Merlier said. "We go faster and faster every year."
While it seemed as though Milan was powering his way to the undisputed sprint king crown at the UAE Tour's unofficial 'sprinters World Championships' with two stage wins, Merlier has evened the score and showed dominance in the past two flat finishes.
Philipsen may be the loser of the week but the battle for all-out sprint supremacy should unfold later this season at the Tour de France, when all three of cycling's top fast men should race each other in the biggest race for the first time.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck man is, however, by far the most experienced of the three in the pandemonium that unfolds in the Tour's sprints as a nine-time winner.
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
