A time locked up, the Soudal Quick-Step rider managed to find the opening to overtake everyone and win with a bike lead over the Eritrean Biniam Girmay (NSN) and the Dutchman Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM).
At the end of another scorching day but without fears for the leaders, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retains the yellow jersey with a lead of 2 minutes and 42 seconds over the Dane Jonas Vingegaard.
As in Bordeaux, Jasper Philipsen, led by Mathieu van der Poel, seemed to hold the rope for a long time before being beaten by the speed of Merlier and finishing fourth.
Tim Merlier, 33, confirms with this second success in two days, his fifth on the Grande Boucle, that he is indeed the fastest man in this Tour de France despite the absence of his usual pilot fish and great friend Bert Van Lerberghe, who gave up in the Pyrenees.
Like Friday, there was also a breakaway on the roads of Dordogne with a trio who isolated themselves from the first kilometers. There was the Czech Jakub Otruba, who had already escaped the day before with Baptiste Veistroffer, the Frenchman Thibault Guernalec, who suffered a serious accident last winter, and the Belgian Liam Slock, who made the rounds on social networks in June when he won his first professional victory, at the GP Gippingen by crossing the line on his stomach after falling while celebrating.
But the three riders did not manage to get along until the end and, 40 km from the finish, on the Buisson-de-Cadouin hill, Guernalec was unable to follow and Slock let go of Otruba to leave alone.
The 25-year-old Belgian, Veistroffer’s teammate at Lotto-Intermarché, continued his adventure to the point of scaring the sprint teams since the peloton was still a minute behind ten kilometers from the goal.
Slock was finally caught 1.4 km from the finish.
