Published on March 21, 2024 at 4:03 p.m. Aurélie Sacchelli
Beaten by Jasper Philipsen on Wednesday in the Bruges – De Panne classic, Tim Merlier believes that his rival’s sprint was not clean and that he would have fallen if he had not slowed down his race.
They are both Belgian and they are probably the two best sprinters in the world at the start of the season. Before meeting on Wednesday in the classic Bruges – La Panne, Jesper Philipsen (26 years old, Alpecin-Deceuninck) had won a Tirreno-Adriatico stage and the first Monument of his career, Milan – San Remo, while Tim Merlier (31 years, Soudal-Quick Step) had won two stages of the AlUla Tour, three of the Tour of the Emirates and Nokere Koerse. The finish of the classic came after a massive sprint, and Philipsen beat Merlier to the line. But the sprint was stormy. About 200m from the line, Merlier lightly pushed Philipsen towards the barriers, and the latter then leaned on him, almost knocking him down. In the columns of the Dutch media Cycling flash, the beat of the day did not hide his frustration: “If I hadn’t held back, spring would be over for me. Jasper is lucky I’m a good runner. If I had pushed, someone would have gone over the barriers. I probably wouldn’t have fallen, but I probably would have been the one to blame. Jasper was coming and I wanted to start sprinting too, but suddenly I got a push in the hip. I stopped pedaling. »
Merlier and Philipsen will meet again on Sunday
To which Jesper Philipsen responded: “I was neck and neck with Tim, it’s a bit of a shame, but it was a good sprint and I’m happy to win. It was difficult to guess what Van Poppel was going to do and I chose the side I had to go, and just in time we were able to avoid a fall,” he added. The two men were teammates at Alpecin-Fenix in 2021 and 2022, and Tim Merlier assures that this incident should not tarnish their relationship. “Will this change my relationship with Jasper?” No. The relationship itself is good. Last year we trained together a few times in Tenerife, although we were no longer teammates. We are now doing the same work. Next time, I won’t just accept defeat. » The next time, it could be this Sunday in Ghent-Wevelgem. Hoping that the battle between the two sprinters does not end in a fall…
