Favorites stage 1 Renewi Tour 2025 | Will Kooij, returning after an illness, be able to beat Merlier?

Terneuzen hosts both the start of the Renewi Tour, and the team presentation on Tuesday. After departing from the city, the stage stays entirely within Zeeland, meaning the wind will always be a decisive factor.

The stage consists of several circuits. From Terneuzen, the riders head in a loop via Hulst before visiting the finish area in Breskens for the first time. From there, a long and a short finishing circuit remain.

The final straight stretches almost 1.5 kilometers, but runs slightly uphill along the Scheldt quay. The last corner onto the Duivelshoekseweg could prove crucial on this brand-new finish in the Renewi Tour.

Times
Start: 1 PM local time (7 AM PDT)
Finish: 5 PM local time (11 AM PDT)

It’s Zeeland, so the wind will matter. Forecasts call for a moderate to strong northeasterly breeze throughout the day, with temperatures around 21°C.

The big question was whether he’d recover from illness in time, but Olav Kooij is indeed on the start list. On paper, the Visma | Lease a Bike sprinter is the man to beat, alongside Tim Merlier. The Soudal Quick-Step fast man already has twelve victories under his belt for this year, including two Tour de France stages. Still, he was surprisingly beaten in a gravel sprint by Niels Vandeputte. A rare moment of weakness?

The closest challengers to Kooij and Merlier appear to be Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Emirates-XRG). The Colombian already claimed his first WorldTour classic this year with Brugge-De Panne. Arnaud De Lie is another strong candidate in this stacked field, especially after showing good form with second place in Hamburg.

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), one of the Netherlands’ fastest sprinters over the past decade, has never actually won in the Renewi Tour. He’ll want to change that this year, though the competition will be fierce. Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) is also quick, but expected to shine more on harder finishes. Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor), meanwhile, is built for pure flat sprints.

And what about Fabio Jakobsen? His comeback in the Tour of Denmark ended quietly with a DNF, but you never know. Perhaps it’s teammate Pavel Bittner we should be watching at Picnic PostNL. And should Merlier be sidelined, Soudal Quick-Step can still call on Paul Magnier. Over at Groupama-FDJ, Paul Penhoët carries their sprint hopes.

Other potential contenders include XDS-Astana’s strong sprint unit (Max Kanter, Mike Teunissen, Davide Ballerini, Yevgeniy Fedorov, and Cees Bol), Cofidis (Milan Fretin), Alpecin-Deceuninck (Simon Dehairs), Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale (Tord Gudmestad), and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe (Sam Welsford).

Top favorites: Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step)
Outsiders: Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Emirates-XRG), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL)
Long shots: Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor), Max Kanter (XDS Astana), Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Sam Welsford (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)