The fastest man in the world on his day, Merlier arrives in Barcelona as Soudal Quick-Step's undisputed leader now that Remco Evenepoel has moved on. A winter knee injury delayed his 2026 start until late March, but he answered every doubt immediately, winning Scheldeprijs on just his second race day for a third straight year. With the whole team built around his sprint, he wants to add to the two stages he took at the 2025 Tour — and the revamped points system puts green in play too.
Palmarès
- European road race champion (2024)
- Belgian road race champion (2019, 2022)
- 3x Tour de France stage winner (2021, 2025 x2)
- 4x Giro d'Italia stage winner (2021, 2024)
- Scheldeprijs winner (2024, 2025, 2026)
- Nokere Koerse winner (2022, 2023, 2024)
Cut-out factMerlier started out as a cyclocross racer, and his partner Cameron Vandenbroucke — daughter of Belgian legend Frank Vandenbroucke — is a former racer herself; their son Jules was born in 2023.
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Pascal Eenkhoorn, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Jasper Stuyven, Dylan van Baarle, Bert Van Lerberghe, Ilan Van Wilder, Louis Vervaeke — see the full Soudal Quick-Step team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: VereeckenCH, license: CC BY-SA 4.0.
A fan project — not affiliated with the Tour de France or A.S.O.
