Results Tour of Holland 2025 Stage 1 | Tim Merlier outlasts Olav Kooij in powerful Dordrecht sprint battle

Soudal - Quick-Step's Tim Merlier has sprinted to a narrow victory on stage 1 of the 2025 Tour of Holland in Dordrecht this Wednesday afternoon, outpowering Olav Kooij in front of the Dutchman's home crowd in a brutal final battle for the line.

With a pan-flat day of racing on the cards and a sprint finish seemingly inevitable, it took a little while for a breakaway to form early on. Eventually though, four riders did manage to force separation from the pack, with a trio of Dutchmen at their home race being joined by Spaniard Javier Serrano of Team Polti VisitMalta. By the time they entered the final 50km of the day however, their advantage over the main peloton was only around 50 seconds, meaning their hopes of denying that expected sprint were never really realistic.

By 30km to go, the break remained dangling tantalisingly in front of a hungry peloton, around 40 seconds the gap. Worth noting was the fact that Dutch sprinting legend Fabio Jakobsen was working on the front of the bunch, seemingly ruling him out of contention for the final sprint. With 22km to go, the work of the peloton paid off and the break was successfully reeled in.

That wasn't the immediate end of the attacks though, as a few riders tried their luck from the front of the pack before the sprint, especially before the Red Bull intermediate sprint with 14km to go won by Jakob Soderqvist. In the end though, it was a bunch sprint that decided the day, and in a frantic fight for the line, Olav Kooij opened up that finale, but at the line, former European champion Tim Merlier was the one with his arms aloft in celebration, taking victory narrowly ahead of Kooij, with Tobias Lund Andresen completing the stage podium in 3rd place.