DISCUSSION Renewi Tour stage 1 & Deutschland Tour prologue | Is Tim Merlier the best sprinter currently? Was Soren Waerenskjold's victory a big surprise?

Both the Renewi Tour and the Deutschland Tour kicked off today, with a pan-flat stage and a prologue respectively.

In Belgium, a seven-men breakaway was established early in the race, formed by Robert Stannard, Max Walker, Jelte Krijnsen, Siebe Deweirdt, Milan Lanhove, Axandre van Petegem, and Andreas Stokbro. Despite working well together, peloton’s high intensity didn’t allow them to build a big gap, being caught with still plenty of kilometres to go.

Some countermovements took place after that, with a big group of 16 riders including strong men such as Paul Magnier or Tibor del Grosso distancing from peloton and establishing a lead that never exceeded 1 minute. The group put up a fierce fight and was not far from stealing the win, but the peloton crushed their hopes with under 5km to go.

In the final sprint, Tim Merlier was the absolute favourite with the absence of Jasper Philipsen and Jonathan Milan, and he delivered. The Belgian powered to victory, with Arnaud de Lie and Juan Sebastián Molano completing the podium.

In Germany, the first stage was the traditional prologue, which ended with Soren Waerenskjold’s triumph, beating British wonderkind Samuel Watson by less than a second. There were big names such as Wout van Aert, Jonathan Milan or Matthew Brennan, but none of them could come close to the Norwegian, who added a prestigious win to his palmarès.

Once the stages finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

The stage was enlivened by the breakaway in the Renewi Tour, with the highlight coming at the golden kilometre, where Rui Oliveira gained bonus seconds that allowed him to secure second place in the overall classification at the end of the day. The breakaway was strong, but the peloton never gave them much leeway, keeping the escapees less than a minute ahead.

It was a pity that 5 kilometres from the finish line some sprinters fell, as it took away some of the excitement from what was already a very good battle for victory in the final sprint. Tim Merlier was not the first to sprint, but he was the best and the strongest.

Arnaud de Lie made a great sprint and passed Molano in the final metres, having been very well launched by the Portuguese António Morgado, who left him very well placed for the final battle, but he did not have the legs to take on the European champion.

Both the first stage of the Renewi Tour and the prologue of the Tour of Germany were quite interesting. In the Flemish race, Tim Merlier was expected to win, but the excitement was in how he did it.

The mid-race breakaway with Paul Magnier, Tibor del Grosso, Gianni Vermeersch, Mikel Teunissen and company gave an extra spice to the day. Finally, as expected, the riders did not want to take a Paul Magnier who was the fastest of the group. That was perfectly exploited by Soudal Quick-Step to leave the win on a plate for Merlier.

In Germany, Soren Waerenskjold surprised all the favorites. He was an outsider, but at no time did we think he was going to beat Wout van Aert, Jonathan Milan, Kaden Groves and all the fast and technical men on the start line.

As for Movistar Team, a positive Top 10 for Fernando Gaviria in the Renewi Tour after a rather important results blip, while Ivan Romeo continues to prove that he is a star in the making with his 13th place in Germany, only 5 seconds behind Waerenskjold.

In Belgium, Soudal Quick-Step got perfect tactics today. They have the best sprinter by far, everybody knows that Tim Merlier is several steps ahead of the competition, so the rest of the teams would have just declined to share the responsibility to pull, forcing Soudal to burn the whole team.

Instead, they sent Paul Magnier to the second breakaway of the day, so they had no reason to pull behind. They had the upper hand if the break survived, as Magnier was the fastest of them all, and also if peloton prevailed with Merlier, which was the final outcome. I expect nothing but the same outcome tomorrow. Barring any unforeseen circumstances (being caught in echelons or crashes), he should win easily.

Arnaud de Lie seems to be back in top shape, which is great news! After a very complicated spring, he accumulated decent performances at the Tour de France, and he is carrying that good shape into late season. He showed great legs in Hamburg last week and today only Merlier could beat him. Considering the hilly route of the last three days, I think he is one of the main favourites to take the overall classification alongside Mathieu van der Poel.

Picnic PostNL did a great job to position Pavel Bittner and launch him, but he didn’t have the power to reach the podium. I am not sure whether Bittner was the man supposed to sprint or it was Jakobsen instead, but what is clear is that the Dutch is a shadow of his former self. He is having such a difficult season once again, today he arrived at the finish line almost 14 minutes after Merlier in a pan-flat stage…

In Germany, Samuel Watson was extremely close to getting his second prologue victory of the season, after his impressive performance in Romandie back in April. He is becoming a prologue specialist, he has never finished worse than third in one in his entire career…

Wout van Aert performed as expected, as did other favourites like Brandon McNulty or Jonathan Milan. I thought super talent Mathhew Brennan could be a bit closer to the top positions, but he was “just” 32nd. He has spoiled us after his terrific season (first as a pro!), single handedly getting more wins than a handful of other WT teams as a whole. He is still in my opinion the man to beat for the overall GC in Germany.