Tim Merlier wins opening sprint in the mellay of the Benelux Tour

Remco Evenepoel fuming after neutral service car struggled to change his wheel leaving him nearly a minute behind the main group

A mechanic fixed Remco Evenepoel's bike with the wrong wheel on Monday causing him to lose time as Tim Merlier of Alpecin-Fenix continued his fine season by winning the opening stage of the Tour of Benelux in Dokkum, northern Netherlands.

Merlier has won stages on the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France this term and with the peloton smashed into small groups due to strong wind the 28-year-old won a sprint from a small group ahead of Phil Bauhaus and Alvaro Hodeg.

Belgian ace Remco Evenepoel had been in the lead group until he got a puncture 28km from the finish, but this was only the start of his troubles.

The neutral mechanic used a wrong replacement wheel, mistaking back for front, and then struggled to take it off again, causing Evenepoel to lose over a minute.

"It was a nervy stage due to all the wind and you had to be constantly aware to be in the right place at the right time," Merlier said after his eighth win of the campaign.

Tuesday's stage is an 11km individual time-trial also in the Netherlands in a race whose finale is in Grammont in Belgium on Sunday.

VIDEO: 2021 Benelux Stage 1 Highlights

2021 Benelux Stage 1 Top 9

1 Tim Merlier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
2 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Bahrain Victorious
3 Alvaro Hodeg Chagui (Col) Deceuninck-QuickStep
4 Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Col) UAE Team Emirates
5 Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo
6 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
7 Maximilian Walscheid (Ger) Qhubeka NextHash
8 Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Pol) Bingoal Pauwels Sauzen WB
9 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma