Nokere Koerse 2022 [FULL RACE]

March 16, 2022

Nokere Koerse 2022 – Deinze – Nokere : 189,8 km

Danilith Nokere Koerse may be one of the lesser-known Flandrian Classics, but it’s by no means lacking in the gritty action that we’ve come to love these Flandrian races for. The race first debuted in 1944 under a different name, the Grand Prix Jules Lowie, in honour of the 1938 Paris-Nice winner, Jules Lowie, who was born in the town of Nokere. These grizzly conditions, combined with over a dozen sectors of rough cobblestones and several leg-breaking climbs, make it an incredibly difficult race to win – unless you’re from Belgium of course.

Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) sprinted to victory in Nokere Koerse, using his power to overtake the Groupama-FDJ lead out and blast up the Nokereberg to the win.

The Belgian sat on the Groupama-FDJ lead-out comfortably in fourth wheel behind Max Walscheid (Cofidis) and when he made his move, Walscheid could not match him and had to settle for second.

Arnaud de Lie (Lotto Soudal) came from a long way back, latching onto the wheel of Bert Van Lerberghe (Quickstep-AlphaVinyl) to take the final podium spot.

“This is my home race – for the public it was great, there were many people out there,” Merlier said. “There was some pressure – when I raced it was like racing worlds in Leuven last year, there was so much atmosphere and everyone wanted me to win because I’m from here.

“I started the sprint early. This was my first time in Nokere Koerse and I watched the sprint of previous editions. I watched how Nacer Bouhanni won, he also went from pretty far.

“I thought I have to take my speed into the climb and get to that little turn to the left and just keep the watts high. I knew not many riders would be able to pass me.”

How it unfolded
The peloton set out into a light headwind for the 189.8km of Nokere Koerse, with the first significant breakaway coming in the hellingen around Oudenaarde, where five riders formed the main escape of the first half of the race.

Robin Carpenter (Human Powered Health), Gil D’Heygere (Minerva Cycling), Adrien Lagree (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), Kobe Vanoverschelde (Tarteletto-Isorex) and Aaron Verwilst (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) worked to build a lead of three minutes but could not stretch it much more.

At the halfway point the race entered the closing circuits and as the breakaway began coming back there was a crash from Hugo Hofstetter, but he was quickly back up and into the peloton. On the Hoevenstraat with 89km to go there was a counter-attack from Iljo Keisse (Quickstep-AlphaVinyl), Laurens Rex (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) and Kévin Van Melsen (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) that neutralised the breakaway as the peloton stretched across the cobbles. By the first ascent of the Nokereberg, the race was all back together.

The pace was high with 76km to go but that did not deter Casper van Uden (DSM) from launching a move. He inspired an attempt to bridge from Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) and Andreas Goeman (Tarteletto-Isorex). They made it to Van Uden with 16 seconds on the peloton and 72km still to go.

It was not a large enough advantage and soon the peloton reeled in first Zoccarato then Van Uden and Goeman. As the gap to the two remaining leaders dropped to 12 seconds, Mathijs Paasschens (Bingoal) set out in pursuit and was joined by Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe).

A crash disrupted the chase, with Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani) falling into the culvert with Pier Andre-Cote (Human Powered Health) and Fabio van den Bossche (Alpecin-Fenix).

Van Uden and Goeman stretched their lead to 20 seconds on the Hoevenstraat cobbles with 60.5km to go, and soon Paaschens and Postlberger bridged across. The quartet held around 20 to 23 seconds as Alpecin-Fenix set a maintenance tempo in the bunch. At the top of the Nokereberg, they had 32 seconds in hand.

The gap stretched to nearly a minute but with 40km to go, it began going rapidly in the opposite direction thanks to the forcing of Israel-Premier Tech, Alepcin-Fenix, Groupama-FDJ and Quickstep-AlphaVinyl. It was down to just over 20 seconds but, sensing the breakaway would be easy to catch, the bunch let their gap grow again to 55 seconds.

Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) envigorated the chase with 33km to go, halving the lead and with one lap to go, the four leaders crested the Nokereberg again with just 21 seconds and with 23km to go, it was all back together.

Not content to wait for the bunch sprint, Sam Watson (Groupama-FDJ) leapt away inside 20km to go and gained 30 seconds on the peloton. His TV time came to an end with 10km remaining.

UAE Team Emirates set a high pace in the final 2km for Pascal Ackermann but it was Groupama-FDJ won took the front on the cobbles, with Alpecin-Fenix’s Merlier pouncing in the final turn to take the win.

Results :
1 Tim Merlier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 4:20:04
2 Maximilian Walscheid (Ger) Cofidis
3 Arnaud De Lie (Bel) Lotto Soudal
4 Bert Van Lerberghe (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
5 Bram Welten (Ned) Groupama-FDJ
6 Rasmus Tiller (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
7 Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Arkea-Samsic
8 Pierre Barbier (Fra) B&B Hotels-KTM
9 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) UAE Team Emirates
10 Jannik Steimle (Ger) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
11 Ethan Vernon (GBr) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
12 Jonas Koch (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
13 Lewis Askey (GBr) Groupama-FDJ
14 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
15 Milan Menten (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB
16 Jenthe Biermans (Bel) Israel-Premier Tech
17 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Israel-Premier Tech
18 Søren Wærenskjold (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
19 Piet Allegaert (Bel) Cofidis
20 Kenneth Van Rooy (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
21 Gerben Thijssen (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
22 Mauro Schmid (Swi) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
23 Benjamin Declercq (Bel) Arkea-Samsic
24 Laurenz Rex (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB
25 Barnabás Peák (Hun) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
26 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal
27 Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ
28 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Human Powered Health
29 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
30 Otto Vergaerde (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
31 André Carvalho (Por) Cofidis
32 Patrick Gamper (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
33 Niklas Märkl (Ger) Team DSM
34 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Alpecin-Fenix
35 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
36 Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkea-Samsic
37 Rui Oliveira (Por) UAE Team Emirates
38 BITTNER Pavel
39 Cyril Gautier (Fra) B&B Hotels-KTM
40 Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (Nor) Team DSM
41 Ludovic Robeet (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB
42 Cedric Beullens (Bel) Lotto Soudal
43 Anders Skaarseth (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 0:00:24
44 Clément Davy (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:33
45 Florian Vermeersch (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:39
46 Arne Marit (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:00:40
47 Kevin Van Melsen (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux 0:00:42
48 Rudy Barbier (Fra) Israel-Premier Tech
49 Gilles De Wilde (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:00:44
50 Sam Welsford (Aus) Team DSM
51 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB 0:00:46
52 Taj Jones (Aus) Israel-Premier Tech
53 Quentin Jauregui (Fra) B&B Hotels-KTM 0:00:48
54 Edward Planckaert (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
55 Christophe Noppe (Bel) Arkea-Samsic 0:00:52
56 FRIGO Marco 0:00:53
57 PUPPIO Antonio
58 Wesley Kreder (Ned) Cofidis
59 WATSON Samuel 0:00:58
60 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:59
61 Oliviero Troia (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:19
62 VAN UDEN Casper 0:01:24
63 Morten Hulgaard (Den) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
64 Floris De Tier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 0:01:49
65 Vito Braet (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
66 SAVER Kasper 0:02:17
67 Felix Groß (Ger) UAE Team Emirates 0:02:28
68 August Jensen (Nor) Human Powered Health 0:03:13
69 Aaron Verwilst (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:03:15
70 Tord Gudmestad (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 0:03:18
71 GOEMAN Andreas
72 Miguel Heidemann (Ger) B&B Hotels-KTM
73 JOSEPH Thomas
74 Shane Archbold (NZl) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:21
75 Markus Pajur (Est) Arkea-Samsic
76 Jelle Wallays (Bel) Cofidis
77 Emils Liepins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:28
78 Julius Johansen (Den) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
79 LEMMENS Sander
80 Mathijs Paasschens (Ned) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB 0:04:09
81 Maurice Ballerstedt (Ger) Alpecin-Fenix 0:04:21
82 Daan Hoole (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
83 Ruben Apers (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise 0:05:18
84 Dayer Quintana (Col) Arkea-Samsic 0:05:39
85 Kenneth Vanbilsen (Bel) Cofidis 0:05:45
86 DHAEYE Enrico 0:06:07
87 VANOVERSCHELDE Kobe
88 VAN DE KERKHOVE Brent 0:06:13
89 Raphael Parisella (Can) B&B Hotels-KTM
90 Pier Andre Cote (Can) Human Powered Health
91 Adrien Lagree (Fra) B&B Hotels-KTM
92 Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
93 Tom Wirtgen (Lux) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB
94 VAN SCHOOR Matthew
95 Aaron Van Poucke (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise
96 Guy Sagiv (Isr) Israel-Premier Tech
97 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
98 Sébastien Grignard (Bel) Lotto Soudal
99 DE POORTER Maxime
100 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
101 VERHOFSTADT Thibau
102 Luca Colnaghi (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
103 Colin Joyce (USA) Human Powered Health
104 Robin Carpenter (USA) Human Powered Health
105 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
106 Stijn Steels (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
107 VAN BREUSSEGEM Elias
108 Finn Fisher-Black (NZl) UAE Team Emirates
109 Tom Devriendt (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
110 Leon Heinschke (Ger) Team DSM
111 Samuele Zoccarato (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
112 Joel Suter (Swi) UAE Team Emirates 0:06:21
113 Alexander Krieger (Ger) Alpecin-Fenix
DNF MUSEEUW Stefano
DNF Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
DNF Johnatan Cañaveral Vargas (Col) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
DNF Alessandro Santaromita Villa (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
DNF Louis Blouwe (Bel) Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB
DNF WILLEMS Thimo
DNF Enrico Zanoncello (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’
DNF D´HEYGERE Gil
DNF Lasse Norman Hansen (Den) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
DNF Martin Laas (Est) Bora-Hansgrohe
DNF Fabio Van Den Bossche (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
DNF Matthew Walls (GBr) Bora-Hansgrohe
DNF Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal
DNF Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Lotto Soudal
DNF Marc Brustenga Masague (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
DNF Jakob Egholm (Den) Trek-Segafredo
DNF Gage Hecht (USA) Human Powered Health
DNF Michel Ries (Lux) Arkea-Samsic
DNS Cees Bol (Ned) Team DSM
DNS Jordi Meeus (Bel) Bora-Hansgrohe