Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 5:16 pm
Tim Merlier won Nokere Koerse. The Belgian racer won the sprint race on Nokereberg with an impressive sprint. Fabio Jacobsen and Jasper Philipsen finished second and third.
The Nokere Koerse course has become more difficult this year, just as it has for the women. The big loop of the final is made considerably more difficult with several new cobblestone sections. I included that the prior expectation was that there would be less chance of a sprint this year.
Part of the leading group, including the powerful Stockmann (right) – Photo: Cor Vos
Stockman and TDT-Unibet are shown
The change of course also inspired a number of attackers. We got an early flight of six featuring Abram Stockman (TDT-Unibet), Yentel Vandevelde, Victor Vercoli (both Flanders-Paloise), Xavier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadie) and Alex Vandebulke (Tartelito-Esorix). They created a good lead of less than four minutes. In the peloton, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal Quick-Step mainly took the lead.
Meanwhile, Stockman, the Belgian from TDT-Unibet, proved he has good legs. Over the difficult terrain he left his fellow escapees behind and began a beautiful solo. Eventually, he too was caught 37 kilometers from the finish, but earned some extra publicity – and the Mountain Award – for his team. Meanwhile, the initiative in the peloton came from various teams – including Team UAE and Groupama-FDJ – who clearly wanted to make the racing difficult.
One of Wellens' many attempts – Photo: Cor Vos
Control from Philipsen and Merlier
We saw accelerations from Tim Wellens, Stefan Kung and Dan Holly, among others – who literally went off the track shortly afterwards – but all their attempts failed very quickly. This was of course thanks to the teams of runners who tried to maintain control. That was at Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal Quick-Step in the position of Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier, but the two fast men were also involved several times.
At the deep end we saw the same story. Four kilometers from the finish came a final effort from Wellens, who had now opened up a good gap. The chase began approximately after 5-6, causing Wellens to be arrested again. So we went to the speed race on Nokereberg.
Impressive racing Merlier
This race was disrupted after a severe collision in the last kilometre, after which Merlier was forced to take some positions. The former Belgian champion did it, and how. Merlier passed the entire group and began his sprint from a very long distance away. As a result, a gap opened immediately. Phillipsen tried to run towards him, but was unable to do so. Merlier won ahead of Jacobsen and Philipsen.
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