Benelux Tour: Tim Merlier wins stage 4

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Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) claimed his second stage win of the Benelux Tour in a bunch sprint on stage 4. 

The Belgian rider, who triumphed from an echelon on the opening day, proved he was fastest from a full bunch with a gutsy late charge in Ardooie. 

Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) looked on course for victory until Merlier nipped past just shy of the line, while Danny van Poppel (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) placed third after launching a long-range sprint. 

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) finished safely in the peloton to retain the overall lead, although his 19-second advantage over Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was cut to 15 in the golden kilometre. 

How it unfolded

The 166-kilometre stage from Aalter to Ardooie was always likely to end in a bunch sprint, with four laps of a 15km finishing circuit in the East Flandrien town. It proved to be a hectic day, with the race halted as soon as it had started due to a mass crash just beyond kilometre-zero. 

When the race resumed after a 15-minute delay, a three-man breakaway - Arjen Livyns (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauzen), Thomas Sprengers (Sport-Vlaanderen Baloise), Sam Bewley (Team BikeExchange) - went clear and built a lead of three minutes. That tumbled as they hit the local laps and it was all back together with 50km still remaining. 

A chaotic phase of the race then ensued, with numerous attacks flying off the front of the peloton, but no new breakaway managing to really stick. With 25km to go, Rune Herregodts (Sport Vlaanderen Baloise) went clear and was joined by Julien Duval (AG2R-Citroën) but the pair failed to collaborate and squandered their advantage. 

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) then rode hard on the front to control things for his team, as the intensity increased ahead of the golden kilometre with 10km to go. Asgreen was led out to take the maximum three bonus seconds at the first, with Bissegger not among the scoring top three. Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) won the second sprint ahead of Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) and Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange), before Asgreen reemerged to win the third and final sprint. This time he was tracked by Bissegger, who claimed two bonus seconds himself. 

It was then all about the run-in to the line, which had been previewed three times already. Lotto Soudal took up the reins initially but Caleb Ewan was unable to contest the sprint in the end. It was a similar story for Jumbo-Visma who led through a couple of corners into the final kilometre but couldn’t propel Dylan Groenewegen higher than ninth. 

In the end, Trek-Segafredo performed the most concerted lead-out, although they were jumped by Van Poppel, who hit out early and hung on impressively. When Pedersen did full open up, Merlier thought about following to the right but saw the door closed, and then decided to charge up the barriers to the left of Van Poppel. Pedersen had started his sprint at the better time and was close to the line but a surging Merlier had just enough road to make his superior speed count.