Merlier wins Scheldeprijs as Groenewegen caught up in crash

The Scheldeprijs was won on Wednesday by Tim Merlier. After a finale marred by crashes in the women's race, it was also a case of crashes in the final half hour among the men. As a result, Dylan Groenewegen could not sprint on behalf of Unibet Rose Rockets, but Merlier could. The Belgian from Soudal Quick-Step had a dreadful winter full of injury problems, but struck gold on just his second race day of 2026.

The Scheldeprijs is often called the 'unofficial World Championship for sprinters' and that was reflected in the start list once again. They were not all there, but with names like Groenewegen, Philipsen, Meeus, Pavel Bittner and the returning Tim Merlier we could still speak of a substantial group of sprinters.

The recipe of the Scheldeprijs is by now well known: from Terneuzen the riders are sent on their way for almost 80 kilometres on Dutch territory, after which the race unfolds further in Belgium. A local circuit in finish town Schoten is by now familiar as the conclusion, after which a sprint usually has to decide things.

That familiar recipe did not stop a group of six riders from taking their place in the early breakaway. Big names or teams were — with all due respect — not among them and so the peloton was content with that. Unibet Rose Rockets, Soudal Quick-Step and Picnic PostNL took the lead in the chase.

As a result of a strong chase, the lead of the six was controlled at just over two minutes. When they arrived at the cobbles of the Broekstraat for the first time at 64 kilometres from the finish, the gap was still a minute and a half. The finale over a finishing circuit of 17 kilometres created a battle in the breakaway group.

Killy, Dissel and Carpenter remained as the last three, but entering the final lap they had only a minute left. When that had shrunk to half a minute entering the final 10 kilometres, we saw — just as with the women — several big crashes in the peloton. Milan Menten (Lotto-Intermarché), Milan Fretin (Cofidis) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) were all on the ground.

When it became clear who was left behind after two crashes, a line could also be drawn through Groenewegen. He did not appear to have crashed himself, but did have to change bikes.

A considerably thinned-out peloton powered on, caught the early breakaway riders, and thundered towards the final kilometre. There it was not Philipsen and his fairly complete team who scored, but Merlier, who won for the third year in a row. In doing so, the Belgian surprised everyone, this being only his second race day of the year.