Tim Merlier will be Soudal - Quick-Step's hope for Scheldeprijs win in Classics campaign to forget
Cycling
Amidst misery, Tim Merlier has been the only member of the Soudal - Quick-Step's classics group who can be somewhat satisfied with his own performances, winning the Nokere Koerse, finishing second at Brugge-De Panne and 8th at hard Gent-Wevelgem. At Wednesday's Scheldeprijs, which should go down in a sprint, he could add another 2024 win to his name.
The former Belgian champion will be Wolfpack's only card for this race. His loyal leadout Bert Van Lerberghe has proved he can handle windy races well. Thus he could play a significant in theoretical echelons. Young Luke Lamperti will be Quick-Step's back-up sprinter.
"Scheldeprijs is the sprinters’ classic and we come to the start with Tim, who is the sprinter with the most victories to his name since the start of the season. We can count on a strong lead-out: Bert will be there to launch him, Luke has the skills and the speed to help in the finale, while Casper and Gianni come with the experience and power to bring our train in a good position. We also have Warre and Jordi, who can control the race, which should be quite windy. We could have some echelons in the first part, before headwind on the local laps, so it will be nervous and it remains to be seen how it will go. We have a chance of fighting for the win and we’ll do our best to get it," said sports director Iljo Keisse in press release.
Soudal - Quick-Step lineup for Scheldeprijs:
Luke Lamperti, Tim Merlier, Gianni Moscon, Casper Pedersen, Bert Van Lerberghe, Warre Vangheluwe and Jordi Warlop
Luke Lamperti, Tim Merlier, Gianni Moscon, Casper Pedersen, Bert Van Lerberghe, Warre Vangheluwe and Jordi Warlop
Read also
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
Loading
April is one of the best months of the season 🤩 Photo: @GettySport
Write a comment