Tim Merlier content to play second fiddle to Fabio Jakobsen in 2023

Tim Merlier leads Fabio Jakobsen onto the stage at Soudal-QuickStep's team presentation
Tim Merlier leads Fabio Jakobsen onto the stage at Soudal-QuickStep's team presentation (Image credit: Getty Images)

The confusion that surrounded the sprinting hierarchy at Soudal-QuickStep in 2022 threatened to repeat itself with the arrival of Tim Merlier for 2023 but the Belgian has played down any notion of a rivalry with Fabio Jakobsen and so effectively ruled himself out of Tour de France contention. 

Last year, Jakobsen suggested he was first in line for Tour selection before being contradicted by team boss Patrick Lefevere, and Cavendish was still publicly making his case for inclusion a week before the start of the race. Jakobsen eventually secured selection and won stage 2 to Nyborg.

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Patrick Fletcher

Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.