Cyclingflash
Tim Merlier fears comeback in race next Sunday: "I am an experiment"

Tim Merlier fears comeback in race next Sunday: "I am an experiment"

The die is cast: Tim Merlier will pin a race number on his jersey for the first time this season with Soudal-Quick Step on Sunday. The 33-year-old sprinter missed the start of his season due to a lingering knee injury. He kicks off his racing at the Grand Prix Jean-Pierre Monseré, but he admits to doing so with a 'nervous heart.' In fact, in Het Laatste Nieuws, he opens up about performance anxiety.

The Belgian himself doubts he’s fully back as a rider this Sunday. "I've been training for four weeks now. Only last week during training camp in Spain – my fourth camp preparing for this season, but the first without having to fly back home early – did I manage to ride five hours straight for the first time. That hadn’t happened since September 6," he explains.

And then comes the GP Monseré on Sunday. "With a nervous heart. I lie awake at night wondering if I’ll be able to keep up. There’s even a bit of performance anxiety. I’m struggling with a fitness deficit. Honestly, I’m an experiment."

The speedy man from Wortegem-Petegem has no illusions about the race on Sunday. "It’s typical of me to want to prove you can do it with less training, but that’s wishful thinking. I want to finish and try to place myself in the finale, but really excelling in the sprint seems unthinkable. I see it as a test and a chance to enjoy myself, even though I know I’ll suffer a lot."

Merlier reveals he has focused on plenty of rest and PRP treatments (where doctors inject the rider’s own blood into bone tissue to promote healing). "Eventually, I was begging for help. I saw various doctors and physiotherapists and tried everything, including deep tissue massages. I was desperate. At a certain point, I even started thinking about how much money I would spend to get rid of it... (laughs) It was a lot of money.”

The sprinter even briefly wondered if his team would still believe him, since scans showed little in his knees. He consciously chose the GP Monseré for his comeback rather than Nokere Koerse or the Bredene Koksijde Classic. "Those are much too tough. Four weeks of training is nothing. [...] Next week there’s Brugge-De Panne, but you can't just ride it for fun either. At this time of year, the GP Monseré is the least demanding race, and the weather forecast looks good. The Coppi e Bartali was an option, but I prefer a one-day race over a whole week with stages featuring two thousand meters of climbing each."
What awaits him after Sunday is still uncertain. The Tour of Bruges is a possibility. "But maybe I’ll go on another training camp because I will likely realize there’s still a lot of work to do on my condition. If all goes well, I’ll also line up at the Scheldeprijs. Gent-Wevelgem next week? With my current base, you can’t expect me to finish a 250 km race."
"Of course, it’s somewhere in the back of my mind, but I have to be realistic: that’s not going to happen," Merlier continues. "Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix are ruled out. I also don’t want to jeopardize the rest of my season. The most important goals will be the National Championships and the Tour. If all goes smoothly, I’ll also race the Tour of Hungary and Tour of Belgium beforehand, hoping to be in top form by the end of June."