Renewi Tour stage 1: Tim Merlier fastest in bunch kick to win opening sprint and take leader's jersey

Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) made it look easy to win the opening stage of the Renewi Tour in Breskens, powering past Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) in the sprint to snag the race's first leader's jersey.

Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates XRG) also sprinted past the fading Bittner to finish second and third on the stage, respectively.

"All day I had a quite good feeling, so I was really confident to have it," Merlier said. "It wasn't assured we were going to have a sprint because of the strong breakaway. But in the end, it all came together, and the team did a really good job to bring me in a good position and I could launch my sprint in the right moment like I wanted."

Merlier's team had an easier day with GC rider Paul Magnier in the day's second breakaway, which forced other teams like Intermarché-Wanty to control the escape.

The Renewi Tour is unique in that there are nine bonus seconds in three sprints inside what is called the 'green kilometre'.

While Merlier leads the overall classification with a ten-second time bonus for the victory, Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) sits in second in the overall classification, two seconds behind Merlier after taking two of the sprints.

Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who gained seven seconds in time bonuses, is third, while De Lie is fourth at four seconds and Molano fifth at six seconds.

The opening stage of the 2025 Renewi Tour, a flat 182.6km stage from Terneuzen to Breskens, seemed to go according to the usual early breakaway/sprint finish script, with seven riders attacking from the gun and getting a gap.

The group included Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Jelte Krijnsen (Jayco-AlUla), Siebe Deweirdt and Milan Lanhove (Flanders Baloise), Alexandre Van Petegem (Wagner Bazin WB), and Andreas Stokbro (Unibet Tietema Rockets).

Over the first 50km, the breakaway built up a lead of nearly two minutes, but in the middle of the stage, their advantage dropped precipitously as the peloton began to shatter in the crosswinds as the race entered the Breskens circuits.

With 110km to go, the peloton split into three, and the increase in pace brought the early breakaway back. Immediately, the leading group of 16 opened up a gap.

In the second escape was Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates), Tibor del Grosso and Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Stannard, Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiael), Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost), Ryan Mullen (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Frank Van den Broek (Picnic-PostNl), Krijnsen, Mike Teunissen (XDS Astana), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto), Kenneth Van Rooy (Wagner Bazin WB), Rick Pluimers (Tudor) and Axel Huens (Unibet Tietema Rockets).

Their lead never surpassed the minute mark, despite clockwork cooperation in the move, and the pace was furious in both the escape and chasing peloton.

The breakaway split before the 'green kilometre' - a series of three consecutive time bonus sprints with 25km to go. Oliveira followed a move by Vermeersch, with De Bondt and Drizners latching on.

Oliveira won all three time bonuses and kept pressing on while Drizners and Vermeersch were brought back by the second breakaway group. With 18km to go, the attackers were all back together with less than a 30-second gap on the bunch behind.

An attack from the breakaway by Stannard led to some hesitation from his former companions. As such, their lead was halved by the more motivated peloton. This caused panic in the breakaway, with Drizners attacking with Del Grosso.

More hesitation and a furious pursuit behind inspired five riders to jump across to Drizners and Del Grosso, while the rest were caught - Vermeersch, Stuyven, Krijnsen, Teunissen, and Van den Broek.

A crash in the peloton briefly disrupted the chase with 5.5km to go, but the leaders were reeled in half a kilometre later.

Soudal-Quickstep controlled the final kilometres, and while Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) tried to open up the sprint early, Merlier easily overhauled him to win the stage.

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