Soudal-QuickStep's in-form sprinter, Tim Merlier, was forced to abandon the Tour de France during the mountainous stage 15 to Plateau de Solaison on Sunday.
Though he survived Saturday's stage to Le Markstein, a second consecutive stage of almost 4,000m of climbing proved too much for the 33-year-old, who won the sprint stages into Bordeaux, Bergerac and Chalons-sur-Saône earlier in the race.
On Saturday, Merlier finished 154th of 169 finishers, some 37 minutes behind winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), well within the time cut. But Sunday was already seen by the team as a risky day for him, team sports director Iljo Keisse telling Het Laaste Nieuws before the start: "This will be a dangerous ride for Tim in terms of the time limit."
Merlier was one of three riders who failed to finish Sunday's brutal stage into the Alps, along with compatriot Tom van Asbroeck (NSN Cycling) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), who crashed out of second place overall.
Off the back early in the day, Merlier had been chasing with Asbroeck and teammate Pascal Eenkhorn earlier in the day, but climbed off when he realised he could never make the time cut. Eenkhorn did make it, however, crossing the line 38.37 behind winner Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and well within the 50-minute time cut.
"It's a shame he had to stop, but he didn't have a good day," the team's other sports director, Davide Bramati, told Sporza. "He was empty and couldn't finish. Maybe something was still possible on Wednesday, but he just had a bad day. He gave everything. That's the way it is."
Merlier's pre-season training was all-but ruined by a knee injury, and though he raced four times through March and April, he was forced to take more time off, only returning to competition in earnest in mid-May. Despite that, he'd already added six wins to his impressive palmarès before arriving in Spain for the Tour de France's Grand Départ.
Merlier's three victories at this year's Tour are added to two at last year's race and back in 2021, when he was racing for what was then Alpecin-Fenix.
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