Dutch winds no match for Merlier: Belgian dominates opening stage of Renewi Tour

Practically completely flat: that's how we could describe the first stage of the five-day WorldTour race. Nevertheless, the riders had to remain alert throughout the 182.6-kilometer stage from Terneuzen to Breskens. It is almost always windy in the Netherlands, and Wednesday was no exception. So everyone had to remain focused!

From the start, seven riders managed to break away from the peloton. Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), local rider Jelte Krijnsen (Jayco AlUla), Siebe Deweirdt, Milan Lanhove (both Flanders-Baloise), Axandre Van Petegem (Wagner Bazin WB), and Andreas Stokbro (Unibet Tietema Rockets) quickly took the lead. The peloton kept the breakaway short, at about two minutes.

It soon became clear why. With more than 100 kilometers to go, the peloton was split into three by the wind. The breakaway group had given up, and a new group of about 16 riders formed at the front. Peloton one and two quickly merged again.

The brand-new breakaway group contained some very dangerous names. Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), for example, as well as Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), and Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL). Their lead over the peloton remained around half a minute for a long time, but the pack did not really get any closer.

In the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike, Intermarché-Wanty, Cofidis, and Groupama-FDJ, the teams that had no riders at the front, took turns at the front. The breakaway group worked well together until the green kilometers loomed. There were bonus seconds to be won, so we saw some accelerations at the front.

Rui Oliveira (UAE Emirates-XRG) won the first two for Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), with the order reversed in the third and final kilometer. Jarrad Drizners (Lotto) finished third three times behind them. After that, the group of sixteen came back together again.

But only for a moment, because with just under twenty kilometers to go, six riders tried to break away. Magnier, Stuyven, and Van den Broek were among them, along with Stannard, Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Rick Pluimers (Tudor). The attack did not last long, as we saw them regroup at the front with seventeen kilometers to go.

The peloton was still half a minute behind and couldn't seem to get any closer. Especially not when Stannard went off on his own. That acceleration caused the pace to pick up again, and the peloton struggled to catch the leaders. Especially when we saw Biniam Girmay hammering away at the front of the peloton shortly afterwards: all his Intermarché-Wanty teammates were exhausted. For a moment, the pace in the pack dropped completely.

That gave the attackers some valuable seconds. However, with 6.5 kilometers to go, the first group of attackers was caught, although the last seven attackers still refused to give up. At that moment, we saw a heavy crash in the peloton. Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) had crashed, as had Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike) and his teammate Dan McLay. The latter seemed to have fared the worst and remained on the roadside for a long time.

Meanwhile, the last attackers had also been caught, so we were getting ready for a special sprint. Kooij was brought back after his crash, while the rest of the sprinters were still wondering how many teammates were left. Merlier was well-positioned and sprinted impressively to the stage win.