Soudal-QuickStep have been preparing slightly differently from the other WorldTour teams this off-season, with riders Tim Merlier, Yves Lampaert and the departing Tim Declercq among those competing in a snowy beach race in Bredene last weekend.
Merlier dramatically won the race after narrowly avoiding a quadbike going into the final corner. He was forced to dismount and run with his bike to the line, only besting journalist and rider Thijs Zonneveld by the barest of margins.
“I was unsure whether to throw my bike or just stick it forward, and it ended up being the latter,” said Merlier to Sporza. “The finish photo showed that I won by 10 hundredths of a second.”
He’ll start his cyclocross season soon at the World Cup in Antwerp with a longer focus on the 2024 road season and trying to get a spot on the Belgian squad’s Tour de France roster after playing second fiddle to Fabio Jakobsen in 2023.
"The aim is always to do better, everyone has their own ambitions,” said Merlier to Sporza. “For me, that is winning as many sprint races as possible. For Bert [Van Lerberghe] that may be doing as many good lead-outs as possible. For Tim Declercq that is doing as many good leading kilometres as possible."
Declercq is leaving Soudal-QuickStep for Lidl-Trek in 2024 but was competing in his trade team’s kit for one of the final times, able to laugh about the far-from-ideal weather conditions while teammates Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe are already in Spain ready for training camp.
"Why are we doing this? We also wonder," laughed Declercq.
"I think it's just cool. It's a different stimulus that we give to our body. It's an off-road race and we don't have much chance to do that,” said Lampaert.
“I would dare to say that this is the feeling of a time trial. A time trial at the limit, continuously. An hour of pumping. Everything you have in you."
This is the second beach race Merlier has won in a few weeks, doing similarly in De Panne, with the team spirit and morale key to competing at these events.
“We can chat about it for a whole year," said Merlier. “We are not paid for it and of course, a road race is more important than this, but it is just fun for morale. For the atmosphere. It is just more fun if you have won here.”
Merlier was adamant that he could help the team at the Tour even with their GC ambitions for Remco Evenepoel due to his ability to help on the off-road gravel stage 9 into Troyes and how he can fill in the rouleur role on mountain days.
“There is a difficult gravel stage 9 on the programme. Bert Van Lerberghe and I have all the qualities to protect Remco well and guide him in terms of positioning,” he said to RTBF.
"Agreed, there are also other riders in the team capable of doing this work, but our leader doesn't only need climbers. Look how Jumbo-Visma's rouleurs take the peloton in tow with their train, up to the foot of each mountain.
"I remain convinced that selecting me and Bert would be a good idea to help Remco win the Tour."
