Cycling: Tour hat trick for Merlier, Kanter seventh

As the best German, Max Kanter sprinted to seventh place. The times when Marcel Kittel and André Greipel won a series of sprint victories at the Tour are gradually being forgotten. The last German daily victory was 1,834 days ago, Nils Politt celebrated in Nimes in 2021.

Shortly behind Kanter there was a violent mass fall. “The crash was two or three positions behind me. We were maybe a little too early, but better too early than too late. It was actually okay. I lose a lot of positions, the way was too long for me,” said Kanter on ARD.

Pogacar continues in yellow

In the overall ranking everything remained the same. The Slovenian favorite Tadej Pogacar still has a comfortable lead of over three minutes over the Dane Jonas Vingegaard. German hopeful Florian Lipowitz is 4:44 minutes back in sixth place.

The number one sprinter is Merlier, who has triumphed in the three major tours for the tenth time. It is only his sixth start at the Tour, Giro or Vuelta. In 2024 he also won the European Championships, beating his well-known compatriot Philipsen.

Merlier is in a class of its own

“He’s the fastest in the world,” enthused rider Jasper Stuyven about Merlier, who is married to Cameron Vandenbroucke, the daughter of Belgian cycling star Frank Vandenbroucke, who died in 2009. Last year, the 33-year-old was still a lone fighter when the Soudal Quick Step team was tailored to double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel. But Merlier knows how to help himself – whether with or without a sprint train. “He is ice-cold and never panics,” praised his sporting director Tom Steels.

With an average speed of 50.91 km/h, the peloton set a record on Wednesday – with the exception of the prologues or time trials. A day later things weren’t moving so quickly, which was also due to the rain that had happened in the meantime.

Start on the circuit in Magny-Cours

A good 25 kilometers after the start on the racetrack in Magny-Cours, where Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher had once triumphed eight times, a four-man leading group with the constant outlier Baptiste Veistroffer pulled away. The group was caught up again 35 kilometers from the finish. Afterwards, other runaways tried – without success.

Florian Lipowitz even had time for jokes along the way. The 25-year-old from the German Red Bull team aimed a drinking bottle at a board with a target set up on the side of the road, missed and commented succinctly on TV: “That’s the reason why I stopped biathlon.” Lipowitz began his sports career as a biathlete and was also part of the national squad. Because he trained a lot on the bike – also due to injury – he discovered his love and talent for cycling.

He can show this again on Friday when the tour heads to the Vosges. The distance from Dole to Belfort is 205.8 kilometers. Around 25 kilometers from the finish, the Ballon d’Alsace, a mountain in the first category, has to be overcome.