Magnier who? Tim Merlier reminds everyone who he is at Tour of Hungary

The opening stage of the Tour of Hungary was won on Wednesday afternoon by Tim Merlier. The Belgian Soudal Quick-Step sprinter powered to victory in Central Europe, taking the leader's jersey.

While Soudal sprinter of the moment Paul Magnier suffers up hill in the rain at the Giro d'Italia, Wednesday also saw the start of the 47th edition of the Tour of Hungary. The 2.Pro-level stage race attracted a strong entry for its level, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG (led by Benoît Cosnefroy) and Lidl-Trek (with Bauke Mollema) among a total of seven WorldTour teams on the start list. Also among the returnees: Tim Merlier, back in the race after nearly a month off the bike.

The first stage looked tailor-made for the Belgian sprinter from the outset — the 143 kilometres between the start town of Gyula and the finish in Békéscsaba were pancake flat. But just as in the Giro d'Italia, the weather in Central Europe was unkind, and a large crash in the opening phase of racing cast a shadow over proceedings.

Shortly after that crash, two Lidl-Trek riders slipped off the front: Mathias Norsgaard and Kristian Egholm, both Danish, formed a two-man break that would persist for much of the stage. In the peloton, Soudal Quick-Step and Jayco AlUla set about chasing — though a second crash also disrupted the latter's race, catching out Kelland O'Brien among others.

Meanwhile, with the two leaders still up the road, a battle for bonus seconds played out at the intermediate sprints, where UAE's Benoît Cosnefroy claimed a handful. Norsgaard and Egholm maintained an advantage of around one minute throughout. The peloton teams eventually decided to increase the pace in good time, and the gap was closed reasonably smoothly.

With ten kilometres remaining, the sprint preparation began in earnest — though Lidl-Trek tried to disrupt it with a late attack from Jakob Söderqvist. XDS Astana, however, had things well organised, thanks to Mike Teunissen's lead-out work. Their sprinter Kanter nevertheless couldn't quite find his way through from fourth or fifth position, and watched Tim Merlier take the win in commanding fashion.