Danilith Nokere Koerse 2024

March 13, 2024 Six riders set off away from the peloton to make the break of the day. UAE and Groupama-FDJ rode to make the race hard and brought the gap down very quickly to just a minute at 69KM to go. Five riders from the break were caught at 47KM to go, Abram Stockman of TDT-Unibet who went solo from the break, was the last to be reeled in at 37KM to go. A few probing attacks looked like they could gain ground but it was never the right combination. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal Quickstep marked all of the moves and seemed to take the air out of any possibility of a break succeeding. Tim Wellens of UAE tried on numerous occasions to get away and was finally able to get clear at 4.5KM to go but the will for a bunch sprint was too great and he was brought back. Under the last KM, an Alpecin-Deceuninck rider swung off their leadout at the same time an Israel-Premier Tech and Soudal Quickstep rider collided, bringing down a number of riders and leaving just ten or twelve at the front to contest the sprint. Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep was one of the last ones through the crash. He got a run on the bunch from the back and started his sprint well before the final left hand corner. Before the others could respond, Merlier had ten bike lengths which was enough for him to be able to sit up and salute the crowd for his third straight win in the event. Fabio Jakobsen of DSM-Firmenich came home best of the rest in second place.