Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) took hold of the second Belgian road race title of his career, with a sprint victory at the end of a chaotic race in Middelkerke.
The former cyclo-cross rider, who won a breakthrough title in 2019 before winning stages at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, got the better of Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the dash for the line.
Merlier's teammate Jasper Philipsen claimed the final spot on the podium as Alpecin-Fenix sprinted with two riders after playing both cards throughout the day.
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The 208km course, made up of a long opening lap through windswept De Moeren and then six local laps of 13.6km, was pan-flat, but there were plenty of riders not interested in a bunch sprint who wanted to rip the race up. In the absence of the defending champion and favourite Wout van Aert, there was a sense that anything was up for grabs.
The early breakaway of 14 riders contained some big names, such as Oliver Naesen and Quinten Hermans, and they quickly opened a lead of six minutes. When the race hit De Moeren, however, crosswinds split the bunch in two, and a huge surge in pace saw the main bunches come roaring back. Most of the pre-race favourites were up in the front peloton, but Intermarché were caught out and spent the rest of the day on the back foot.
Merlier and Philipsen both crashed on the run-in to the local circuit as the race became increasingly chaotic. With the remnants of the early break caught, Sep Vanmarcke went on a solo attack and was soon joined by 10 riders: Philipsen, Fabio Van den Bossche, Tim Declercq, Pieter Serry, Florian Vermeersch, Jasper Stuyven, Tom Van Asbroeck, Stan Dewulf and Tosh van der Sande.
Philipsen's presence was key, allowing Merlier and Alpecin-Fenix - the most represented team in the bunch - to sit back. Lotto Soudal then had shoulder responsibility for their leader Arnaud De Lie. However, that situation was turned on its head when Philipsen punctured and dropped from the group on the penultimate lap. Alpecin started to chase and the gap steadily dropped.
On the final lap, Remco Evenepoel tried to upset the order for a QuickStep team with no real sprint card. The youngster attacked from the bunch and made it over to the front of what was a fragmenting lead group, with just Stuyven and Vanmarcke left. Evenepoel put them under serious pressure but was never able to drop them and go clear.
With 3km to go, the race then came back together for a sprint from a reduced and tired group. Merlier sprinted on the right, Philipsen on the let, and the 2019 champion came out on top, with Meeus running him very close to take the silver medal. De Lie could only manage a more distant sixth place.
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