Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) made it two in a row in the Scheldeprijs, out-sprinting a poorly positioned Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceunick) in a bunch sprint to win the 2024 edition.
Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) had Philipsen on his wheel and could only watch as the Milan-San Remo winner came past to snatch the runner-up spot and had to settle for third.
The victory was Merlier's seventh of the season and the second of the Classics season, saving Soudal-Quickstep's campaign.
Merlier had to fight his way back into the peloton after a puncture with 10km to go and was out of position until his teammate came back to pull him to the front.
"We were quite far [back] a bit and I was alone for a bit then it was Bert coming and he knows what to do and brought me to a good spot. When I felt the moment was there I started my sprint and it was enough to hold it."
How it unfolded
After a wet morning, the rain stopped for the 112th Scheldeprijs and attacks went from the flag drop as usual. After five kilometres, five riders had forged a small lead but their time out front was short.
Liam Slock (Lotto Dstny), Tord Gudmestad (Uno-X Mobility), Mirko Bozzolo (Q36.5), Bram Dissel (BEAT) and Peder Dahl Strand (Tarteletto-Isorex) were hovering at 20 seconds ahead of the peloton when a crash took down one of the pre-race favourites, Gerben Thijssen (Intermarche-Wanty) and his teammate Arne Marit.
In the mayhem of the crash and an upcoming section of crosswinds, the peloton split as teams were keen to take advantage of the wind conditions. The breakaway mostly came back with 160km to go but Slock made it into another move with Baptiste Planckaert (Intermarche-Wanty), Vincent Van Hemelen (Flanders-Baloise), Axel Huens (TDT-Unibet) and Stijn Appel (Beat).
The crosswinds fizzled but not before Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter Sam Welsford found himself on the wrong end of a split and had to burn matches to get back to the front group.
When the wind died down, the peloton came back together and, halfway through the race, the leaders had a gap of 3:25.
The leaders had just over a minute on the first trip over the cobbles of Broekstraat with 50km to go and the gap continued to fall. With two laps to go it was under a minute and Huens decided he could go on no further and sat up. Soon, Van Hemelen and Appel joined him in going back to the peloton, leaving Planckaert and Slock continue alone.
With one lap to go, the pair enjoyed a bit of sunshine but the outlook for their move was not as bright as the bunch were 20 seconds behind and, with 15km to go, Planckaert lost touch leaving Slock to go it alone.
His advantage stretched to 30 seconds as Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) had to stop for a puncture. That meant his team had to lose position with 10km to go to bring him back into contention.
On the final trip over the cobbles, the gap to the peloton fell fast enough that Slock sat up, leaving the peloton all together with Astana, Bora-Hansgrohe and Jayco-AlUla to battle at the front for position.
UAE Team Emirates, Uno-X and Tudor came forward in the final 5km with Alpecin and Quickstep taking a back seat. A surge from Lidl-Trek opened a door and Alpecin-Deceuninck finally made their way to the front, but they were without Philipsen.
After more looking around, the Alpecin train finally came to the front with 1.7km to go with Philipsen in tow.
Merlier opened up the sprint first as Phlilipsen had to fight his way through traffic and could not get past the flying Belgian.
Results
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