Scheldeprijs 2024

April 3, 2024 Starting in Terneuzen, one of the windiest places in Europe, echelons would form to make a stressful difficult first part of the race. The initial break of five were caught before even making it into Belgium as the peloton was splitting to pieces in the wind. It would eventually calm and come back together but energy would have been spent that will be needed in the sprint later on. A new group of five got out of the peloton to forge their own way and had a gap of two minutes with 80KM to go. The peloton kept inching closer to the break, ninety seconds with three laps of the local circuit remaining, then just thirty seconds one lap later with 33KM to go. Baptiste Planckaert of Intermarché-Wanty followed an attack from Liam Slock of Lotto-Dstny that split the front to just the two riders, but it just delayed the inevitable catch. The pair had twenty seconds going through with one lap to go and Slock went solo with 16KM remaining but was finally reeled in 8KM later. The lead outs were really getting hectic as a series of right turns shuffled the trains around. Alpecin-Deceuninck took advantage and came with speed, hitting the front with 1.5KM to go and three riders in front of Jasper Philipsen. Philipsen got boxed in with 500M to go but Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep got a clean run and was first to sprint. He had the legs to hold on for the win. When Philipsen was finally clear, he gave it a good try and got around everyone but Merlier to finish second. Dylan Groenewegen of Jayco AlUla got up for third as his sprinting form seems to be coming around.