Tim Merlier wins Nokere Koerse

Image 1 of 18

Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) sprinted to victory in Nokere Koerse, using his power to overtake the Groupama-FDJ lead out and blast up the Nokereberg to the win.

The Belgian sat on the Groupama-FDJ lead-out comfortably in fourth wheel behind Max Walscheid (Cofidis) and when he made his move, Walscheid could not match him and had to settle for second.

Arnaud de Lie (Lotto Soudal) came from a long way back, latching onto the wheel of Bert Van Lerberghe (Quickstep-AlphaVinyl) to take the final podium spot.

"This is my home race - for the public it was great, there were many people out there," Merlier said. "There was some pressure - when I raced it was like racing worlds in Leuven last year, there was so much atmosphere and everyone wanted me to win because I'm from here.

"I started the sprint early. This was my first time in Nokere Koerse and I watched the sprint of previous editions. I watched how Nacer Bouhanni won, he also went from pretty far.

"I thought I have to take my speed into the climb and get to that little turn to the left and just keep the watts high. I knew not many riders would be able to pass me."

How it unfolded

The peloton set out into a light headwind for the 189.8km of Nokere Koerse, with the first significant breakaway coming in the hellingen around Oudenaarde, where five riders formed the main escape of the first half of the race.

Robin Carpenter (Human Powered Health), Gil D'Heygere (Minerva Cycling), Adrien Lagree (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), Kobe Vanoverschelde (Tarteletto-Isorex) and Aaron Verwilst (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) worked to build a lead of three minutes but could not stretch it much more.

At the halfway point the race entered the closing circuits and as the breakaway began coming back there was a crash from Hugo Hofstetter, but he was quickly back up and into the peloton. On the Hoevenstraat with 89km to go there was a counter-attack from Iljo Keisse (Quickstep-AlphaVinyl), Laurens Rex (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) and Kévin Van Melsen (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) that neutralised the breakaway as the peloton stretched across the cobbles. By the first ascent of the Nokereberg, the race was all back together.

The pace was high with 76km to go but that did not deter Casper van Uden (DSM) from launching a move. He inspired an attempt to bridge from Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) and Andreas Goeman (Tarteletto-Isorex). They made it to Van Uden with 16 seconds on the peloton and 72km still to go.

It was not a large enough advantage and soon the peloton reeled in first Zoccarato then Van Uden and Goeman. As the gap to the two remaining leaders dropped to 12 seconds, Mathijs Paasschens (Bingoal) set out in pursuit and was joined by Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe).

A crash disrupted the chase, with Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani) falling into the culvert with Pier Andre-Cote (Human Powered Health) and Fabio van den Bossche (Alpecin-Fenix).

Van Uden and Goeman stretched their lead to 20 seconds on the Hoevenstraat cobbles with 60.5km to go, and soon Paaschens and Postlberger bridged across. The quartet held around 20 to 23 seconds as Alpecin-Fenix set a maintenance tempo in the bunch. At the top of the Nokereberg, they had 32 seconds in hand.

The gap stretched to nearly a minute but with 40km to go, it began going rapidly in the opposite direction thanks to the forcing of Israel-Premier Tech, Alepcin-Fenix, Groupama-FDJ and Quickstep-AlphaVinyl. It was down to just over 20 seconds but, sensing the breakaway would be easy to catch, the bunch let their gap grow again to 55 seconds.

Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) envigorated the chase with 33km to go, halving the lead and with one lap to go, the four leaders crested the Nokereberg again with just 21 seconds and with 23km to go, it was all back together.

Not content to wait for the bunch sprint, Sam Watson (Groupama-FDJ) leapt away inside 20km to go and gained 30 seconds on the peloton. His TV time came to an end with 10km remaining.

UAE Team Emirates set a high pace in the final 2km for Pascal Ackermann but it was Groupama-FDJ won took the front on the cobbles, with Alpecin-Fenix's Merlier pouncing in the final turn to take the win.