In a bunch sprint finale, Soudal - Quick-Step has prevailed to take the victory on stage 2 of the 2024 Baloise Belgium Tour with a dominant performance.
Five riders got themselves ahead of the race to form the breakaway of the day early on. The most notable of whom was former Giro d'Italia stage winner, Davide Bais of Team Polti Kometa. Best placed in terms of the general classification however, was Quentin Bezza of the Philippe Wagner/Bazin team at just 21 seconds down.
Heading into the final 50km however, things were already all back together, with the peloton controlling the front of the race. With a golden kilometre coming before the finale though, there was still plenty of action at the front. In the golden kilometre, Soren Waerenskjold, Mathias Vacek and Benoit Cosnefroy each took a victory in the three mini sprints.
Following that, it was all about the preparation for the expected bunch sprint finale. Team Visma | Lease a Bike and Uno-X Mobility were fighting for position on the front of the peloton, working in the service of Olav Kooij and race leader Waerenskjold respectively. Into the final kilometre however, both Alpecin-Deceuninck of Jasper Philipsen and Soudal - Quick-Step of Tim Merlier emerged.
Merlier was the man to open the sprint and the Belgian absolutely dominated once he launched, firing to a somewhat comfortable win ahead of Philipsen and Kooij.
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