ARNHEM — Tim Merlier powered to a commanding sprint victory on the final stage of the Eneco Tour into Arnhem, taking his second stage win of the race and his 14th victory of the 2026 season in 3:05:07 over 149.2km, as Visma-Lease a Bike's Victor Campenaerts sealed the overall title.
Soudal-QuickStep were prominent on the run-in to a finish that always looked set for the sprinters, while Unibet Rose Rockets countered in the final kilometre with a lead-out for Dylan Groenewegen that proved ragged. Merlier was poised behind and accelerated past his rival with ease, hitting the front with a clear gap he held to the line for a comfortable win. Groenewegen finished a distant second for his second runner-up spot behind Merlier in the race, while Davide Donati of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rounded out the podium in third.
The sprint was set up after solo attacker Michiel Mouris of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe was caught with 7.5km to go. The Dutchman had bridged across to the three-man breakaway of Marijn Maas of BEAT p/b Saxo, Rick Ottema of EEW-VDK Cyclingteam and Mattanja Woets of VolkerWessels with 23km remaining before going solo. The charging peloton, invested in a sprint finish, marked out any further attacks, leaving Soudal-QuickStep, Unibet Rose Rockets and Visma-Lease a Bike to lead the way into the final kilometres.
Campenaerts could celebrate at the finish, clinching his first victory in a stage race with an overall time of 11:49:26. He finished 15 seconds clear of Wessel Mouris of Unibet Rose Rockets, while Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took third overall, 30 seconds back. Tomáš Kopecký was fourth at 38 seconds, with Pepijn Reinderink fifth at 1:02.