Two-for-two for Tim Merlier at UAE Tour; Belgian outsprints Arvid de Kleijn and Olav Kooij
Cycling
A second victory in the second bunch sprint of the race. Tim Merlier is thriving at the UAE Tour and has become the winner of stage 4.
A day racing in the city of Dubai and around, it was not one where many riders hoped to be in the breakaway. As usual, Mark Stewart was present, this time around joined by pure climber Harm Vanhoucke of Lotto Dstny.
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It was however never a move that had chances of succeeding. The peloton rode around calmly all day long. Stewart waited for the peloton with 80 kilometers to go after the intermediate sprints were passed, Vanhoucke equally waited for the peloton and was reeled in with 50 kilometers to go. Despite being a World Tour event, the route did not even convince the smaller teams to pursue TV exposure further.
The speed gradually began to rise into the final kilometers, a crash then disrupted some's plans with 3 kilometers to go. Alpecin-Deceuninck had a strong lead-out to the finish line but it was another chaotic finale. Tim Merlier jumped from the wheel of Olav Kooij in the final meters and took his second victory of the week. Arvid de Kleijn sprinted to second once again quite close to victory, whilst Kooij finished third. The peloton arrived in small groups behind, but there were no time losses due to the crash.
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- If you listen to team radios you'll hear each DS telling their riders to ride faster, fight their way to the front, and all occupy the same 8 places.Sweep22-12-2024
- You're talking about a sport where equipment and clothing is measured in grams.Sweep22-12-2024
- “During a TT, I am basically blind”. That was his quote after crashing into the barriers in a TT. The problem isn’t the UCI, radios or air bags. The problem is the riders and their teams.JoeyB22-12-2024
- I think you overestimate scientific knowledge and for sure the spreading of it. There are huge numbers of people in similar situations, if there were an easy solution somebody would be making big money out of it. Nerve pain can have many complex origins or be due to complex combinations of reasons. Even if you discover a reason there is not always a solution. Migraines haven’t been solved either. I have had lower back/hip nerve pains on and off for over 30 years, no kind of doctor has ever found a way to reduce, prevent or solve the problem. It may just be that some people are born with nerves that are too short or get twisted out of position during certain movements.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- Amazing ride by her and very promising for her future. On a side note, it’s a bit worrying all these wins riders have after emotional moments in their lives, someone will come up with emotional doping at some point. Maybe give them fake news just before a big race to get hormones pumping.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- I doubt he will have the energy to do that if he continues to do leadout for Phillipsenabstractengineer22-12-2024
- I know several people who’ve tried contacting sport airbag manufacturers and none of them ever got a reply. Might be hard to organise anything with such attitudes.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- It's the BBC. Who cares outside of little Britain.leodis22-12-2024
- Crawl back under your stone.leodis22-12-2024
- Thanks Dadmobk22-12-2024