Tim Merlier is hoping to proceed his run of 2024 dash success on the Giro d’Italia, with the Belgian heading to altitude together with his household quickly after the cobbled classics to attempt to discover a increase for the anticipated six or seven dash alternatives through the Corsa Rosa.
Merlier will lead Soudal Quick-Step in Italy, alongside Julian Alaphilippe and Mauri Vansevenant, with the USA’s Luke Lamperti additionally a part of the Belgian staff after his spectacular season debut and Classics marketing campaign.
Merlier has already received seven sprints in 2024, together with at Scheldeprijs, the place he beat Jasper Philipsen and Dylan Groenwegen. Merlier was neglected for a spot within the Grand Tours in 2023 however has helped save Soudal Quick-Step’s early season after their poor Classics marketing campaign and Remco Evenepoel’s collarbone fracture at Itzulia Basque Country.
While Tadej Pogacar is predicted to dominate the race total victory and the race for the maglia rosa, the dash finishes ought to produce some shut battles and rivalries. The Giro d’Italia begins in Turin on Saturday May 4 with a hilly opening street stage and a mountain end. The dash alternatives then come within the first week because the race heads south to Tuscany.
Other sprinters on the Giro d’Italia entry record embrace Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), Fabio Jakobsen (Dsm-firmenich PostNL), Caleb Ewan (Jayco-Alula), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), Alberto Dainese (Tudor), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché – Wanty), Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) and Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates).
The solely big-name sprinters lacking from the Giro d’Italia are Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), Groenewegen and Philipsen. Cavendish is using the Tour de Hongrie in early May, whereas Groenewegen and Philipsen are specializing in the Tour de France.
Merlier beat a lot of the big-name sprinters on the UAE Tour and is completely happy to see a Giro d’Italia peloton filled with sprinters and their lead-out trains.
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“The extra sprinters there are, the extra groups there are to intention for a dash. You even have a barely higher understanding if you type the gruppetto within the mountains,” Merlier informed Nieuwsblad in a protracted interview, highlighting the contrasting logic of a sprinter in a Grand Tour.
Merlier was talking from Mount Teide the place he was finishing his pre-Giro coaching, together with his companion Cameron Vandenbroucke and their younger son. He has skilled with Edward Theuns of Lidl-Trek who might be Milan’s leadout man, mixing low-altitude dash efforts with rides again as much as Hotel El Parador on the upper slopes of Tenerife’s volcano.
Merlier received a stage on the 2021 Giro d’Italia in Novara. He additionally received a Tour de France stage throughout the identical season and has 41 victoria on his palmares. He is hoping for extra within the 2024 Corsa Rosa.
“I’m going for a primary stage win. If I get that one, I’ll take into consideration the following one after which possibly the factors jersey can turn out to be a objective. But I’ll concentrate on the sprints themselves,” he mentioned.
The Giro d’Italia once more begins in Piemonte, like in 2021 when Merlier received in Novara on stage 2.
“Now there are extra potentialities than in 2021 however however it’s important to survive much more,” Merlier defined, noting the late climbs which have typically been included earlier than dash finishes.
“There are two phases the place within the ultimate it’s important to survive two 2km climbs at 4 to 5 per cent. Normally that isn’t an issue for me however it’s also not that you just get to the end simply.
“I received the Scheldeprijs, Nokere Koerse and three World Tour competitions. I’m very glad with my spring, though a crash took me out of Paris-Roubaix. I used to be up there within the spring and now I need to be up there in Giro.”