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Belgian sprinter Tim Merlier continued his superb season Sunday, adding the European road race championship to the three Giro d’Italia stage wins plus ten other victories this year.

The Belgian rider gapped the rest in the final sprint and had enough in hand to hold off a fast-closing Olav Kooij (Netherlands). Madis Mihkels (Estonia) pipped Jasper Pedersen (Belgium) for third, with Alexander Kristoff (Norway) and Mads Pedersen (Denmark) completing the top six.

The race was marked by repeated attacks by Pedersen and world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), but while those two were clear with several others for an extended period, persistent chasing by the Italian squad brought them back with 25km remaining.

The Italians continued to work to try to set up Jonathan Milan but their efforts unraveled inside the final 2km when the other teams pushed forward and seized their chance.

Milan was badly positioned and got hemmed in behind the first row of riders, trailing home in 13th.

Merlier judged things best of all, landing one of the biggest victories of his career and earning the right to wear the distinctive European champion’s jersey for the next year.

Big names light things up

The European championship for elite men began in Heusden-Zolder and concluded 222.9km later in Hasselt. Like Saturday’s women’s race, it featured both climbs and cobbled sections. For the men, there would be eight stretches of pave, and six climbs.

The uphills were the Kolmontberg (0.6km at 4.8 percent average gradient) and the Zammelenberg (0.7km at 4.3 percent). These would be encountered three times each during the race as part of the 32km Limburg circuit lap.

A five man breakaway glided clear after just over 10km of racing. Mathis Le Berre (France), Nils Brun (Switzerland), Jonas Rutsch (Germany), Felix Ritzinger (Austria) and Ivo Oliveira (Portugal) were out front for over two hours, with Ritzinger eventually fading.

Pedersen (Denmark), Matteo Trentin (Italy), Michal Paluta (Poland) and Erik Fetter (Hungary) leaped across with 107km remaining but everything was back together 11km later.

Van der Poel (Netherlands) started throwing the gauntlet down with 91km remaining, launching the first of many sharp attacks. This move was covered but he rode clear again four km later and was joined by Trentin and Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark).

This sparked off alarm bells and a chase group of approximately 20 riders bridged, forming a selection in the race.

Van der Poel and Pedersen launched various surges between them but committed chasing behind closed everything down with 62km left.

Pedersen and Van der Poel combine

Pedersen was persistent and hammered it once again with 55km to go. This move dragged Laporte, Danny van Poppel (Netherlands) and Arthur Kluckers (Luxembourg) clear, with Van der Poel and Jonas Rutsch (Germany) quickly bridging.

Kluckers lost his place up front but the other five continued onwards. However, despite their firepower, the Italy-led peloton dragged them back with 25km left.

Italy and Germany led the peloton across the finish line for the final 14.1km lap. Danish riders Søren Kragh Andersen and Kasper Asgreen launched consecutive solo moves, with the latter remaining clear until 5.6km to go.

This was immediately countered by Kragh Andersen, but once again Italy foiled the effort. The squad drilled it inside the final kilometer, but the Belgians and the Norwegians swept through thanks to their fresher legs.

Merlier received a good leadout and launched, easily moving clear of the rest and then holding off a hard-chasing Kooij by a very small margin.