Soudal-Quick Step spoils Visma | Lease a Bike’s party at the Tour of Holland in Dordrecht
CyclingWednesday, 15 October 2025 at 17:29
Tim Merlier won the first stage of the Tour of Holland on Wednesday afternoon. The Belgian rider spoiled the Dutch party of Visma | Lease a Bike, who would have loved to win in front of their home crowd with Olav Kooij. The Dutch sprinter finished second, Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL) third. Jakob Söderqvist is the new leader.
Under the evening lights, the reinstated Tour of the Netherlands, this time under the name Tour of Holland, made its return to the cycling calendar on Tuesday evening. In the 4-kilometer prologue in The Hague, Ethan Hayter, riding for Soudal Quick-Step, was ultimately the fastest. The Brit was less than half a second faster than the Lidl-Trek duo of Cameron Rogers and Jakob Söderqvist.
On Wednesday, the first stage was expected to be for the fast men. The organization had mapped out a 118.5-kilometer stage starting and finishing in Dordrecht. The route was completely flat and included five local laps. Surely the sprinter teams would have a chance to shine?
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Four riders break away, but get little space from a laid-back peloton
The stage wasn't that long, but it still took a while before we saw a breakaway group pull away. In the end, four riders succeeded: the Dutchmen Jelle Bouma (Diftar), who crashed in the prologue, Niek Hoornsman (Metec-Solarwatt), and Luke Verburg (Parkhotel Valkenburg) rode away with the Spaniard Javier Serrano (Polti VisitMalta).
Precisely because of the short length of this first stage, the four were kept on a short leash. The early breakaway's lead was no more than a minute. In the peloton behind, the pace was not even that high, and there was no sign of stress or nervousness. The sprinter teams had everything under control.
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Lidl-Trek takes 3 seconds with Söderqvist
On the dike, with 57 kilometers to go, it was time to sprint, as the first Red Bull kilometer had been drawn at that spot. It was Verburg who won the sprint on behalf of Parkhotel Valkenburg, ahead of Serrano and Bouma, who finished second and third, respectively. Three, two, and one bonus seconds were up for grabs in the sprint.
With Visma | Lease a Bike, Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Soudal-Quick Step at the front of the peloton, the last escapees were caught 22 kilometers from the finish line. After Söderqvist of Lidl-Trek won Red Bull's second bonus sprint (resulting in the virtual leader's jersey), we could prepare for a bunch sprint in Dordrecht.
A late attack by Martijn Rasenberg (Parkhotel Valkenburg) failed to make any difference, and the big names were allowed to sprint for the win. Visma had Olav Kooij and Quick Step counted on Tim Merlier, and it was the latter who was able to raise his hands in victory.
Results stage 1 Tour of Holland 2025
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Latest Comments
- Cracked the code lol. If it was that easy to 'crack the code' jonny Vegas would be charging up the Kwaremont giving Pog a dose of his medicine. Evenepoel can't match pog on a climb and neither can mvdp. Anything with a half difficult climb and Pog smashes the field. Even on flat(ish)parcours like Roubaix it came down to a mistake and crash by pog to definitively crown mvdp. MSR is the only one that Pog probably won't win.kevpt10-10-2025
- We've seen this movie before. I think Pogacar is doping.DeadBlow10-10-2025
- 👍Bea08-10-2025
- 👌🏻Bea08-10-2025
- What the data doesn't show is how much of an effect drafting had for evenepoel. Pogacar went with del toro at 100km whilst Evenepoel was still in the bunch. Despite the bike changes he still had a lot of assistance getting back to the bunch. Pogacar then rode 60km solo whilst evenepoel rode with Healy/Skjelmose until going solo in thd last 10-15km. Thats ~20% less power / energy requirements for 45-50km. Apples and oranges...kevpt30-09-2025
- 👏👏Bea24-09-2025
- Agreed! As we all know now, Juan Ayuso will be on another team. But it was sweet to see him win the stages at La Vuelta. I do love the drama of cycling admittedly but its clear to see the talent of winners of stages in a Grand Tourryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Pogacar has no competition he has won everything, I cant imagine even being him in that position!! Crazy. I am sure he has some back up plan for how he wants to spend his retirement years at age 30 onward. Does he like beer? Plenty of innovation in brewing. And you don't have to be super social. Chapeau/Cheers whatever you like Tadej you will do.ryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Plus its confirmed that the Philadelphia Cycling Classic up the Manayunk Wall is back for 2026! hooray for thatryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- This is a dumb question but still why doesn't the UCI consider a grand tour in the USA in the future. We have the desolate/scary back roads in Pennsylvania and Virginia, just like in France with loads of rural land and hills. Plus the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Cascade/Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I'm sure it'll never happen but honestly people in PA/NJ/NY/VT/NH would love it. We are already sports fans, what is another sport to learn. I am forever optimistic about cycling in the US.ryhw2814fq918-09-2025
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