Scheldeprijs live – Philipsen defends his title against Merlier, Groenewegen

The rider with the most wins in this race is the now retired big German, Marcel Kittel. He took five victories in Schoten between the years of 2012 and 2017. 

Only one active rider is in the top 10 for most wins and he sits in second on three wins and that is, unsurprisingly, the Manx Missile himself, Mark Cavendish. Unfortunately, due to his persistent illness, Cav will not be racing today and will return to action for Astana later this month at the Presidential Tour of Turkey followed by the Tour of Hungary in May.

This year’s race is looking like it possibly could be a two horse race as the two on form big name Belgian sprinters of Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen and Sodal-QuickStep’s Tim Merlier are both present. 

There are a few other riders who have a realistic chance of winning in a bunch dash to the line, though. They are Jayco-AlUla’s Dylan Groenewegen, Tudor’s Arvid De Kleijn, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Welsford and Danny van Poppel, Intermarche-Wanty’s Gerben Thijssen and UAE Team Emirates’ Juan Sebastian Molano.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2024 Scheldeprijs!