🇪🇺 #EuroRoad22 It's 🥉 for @MerlierTim and @BELCyclingTeam after a long sprint! Congrats to all our riders in #Munich2022 👏 📸 @eurosport
Tim Merlier disappointed after "fatal" mistake at European's sprint
CyclingSunday, 14 August 2022 at 16:36
Tim Merlier had won the Belgian national championships in similar conditions this year, and amidst a chaotic sprint in Munich he almost came away with the European title, but his early sprint proved costly.
“They passed me in the last 25 meters. I think I had to start a little too early," Merlier said on the post-race interview. He was the first of the favourites to launch his sprint, perhaps not on the plans of Belgium. "It may have looked that way on TV, but it was super hectic. If you sit too far, you have to pedal too many peaks and we could now avoid that. This was a super team," he responded.
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Belgium was active during the day, with Dries de Bondt and Dries van Gestel making move across the Eurasburg, but eventually a bunch sprint was unavoidable. The Belgian national team managed to deliver Merlier to the perfect position, but his sprint came a few seconds too early as he saw Fabio Jakobsen and Arnaud Démare storm through in the final meters.
"It is painful. It was already running through my head that I would win and something like that doesn't happen to me much," he described. “If it had been the other way around, he would have been beaten too. If there's a fast rider in your wheel and you have to start a little too early, it's usually fatal. And it's Jakobsen too, hey".
“There was a jersey attached to this," he concluded with a disappointing feeling. Merlier will nevertheless be wearing the Belgian national champion colours for the next 10 months, so by no means will he be regretting on a disappointing season. He will start the Vuelta a Espana this coming week.
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