Xandro Meurisse (Crelan) confirmed why he is regarded as huge Belgian talent when he took a surprise victory in the queen stage at the 4 Days of Dunkirk. Battling with the best on the final climb, the Belgian showed impressive strength by beating Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) in the uphill dash to the line, with Marco Frapporti (Androni) crossing the line in third. Coquard extended his overall lead on the eve of the final stage.

We have gathered a few reactions.

Xandro Meurisse aims for pro contract and the Tour of Belgium after breakthrough win in Dunkirk

"Im the finale, I was on Niki Terpstra’s wheel.But I still felt so good, so I decided to take my chance,” Meurisse said. “I joined the three leaders and keep them all behind me could in the final meters. I won the best stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk and am third in the GC. I now work towards the Tour of Belgium and hope to strike again in the Ardennes stage. The ambition is to become professional next year. Preferably with my current team but that is a concern for later. I still want to enjoy this victory.”

Bryan Coquard: Now the worst is over

"I wanted to do everything to keep my pink jersey and it worked. In the end, I just had Sylvain Chavanel of the team with me. That was logical. The rest of the boys had had a long and hard day. In the finale, there were serious attacks. When those two suddenly went, I knew I had to go,” Bryan Coquard said.

"We were expecting to be attacked but the team was stronger than them. My teammates controlled it and the strongest today was surely Sylvain Chavanel and he was on my team. Honestly, I was serene when I saw the team I had around of me. At no time, despite all the attacks, I told myself that we were losing the Four Days of Dunkirk. There is one more stage, we must be careful but the worst is over.

"Maybe we will have a bunch sprint again tomorrow but I am not sure that I will contest it. We'll see. We have to see how the legs will feel after these four exhausting days.”

Pierrick Fedrigo back on form with near-miss in Dunkirk queen stage

Fortuneo-Vital Concept were in all attacks with Arnaud Gérard, Brice Feillu and Florian Vachon. With less than 3 kilometers to go, it was Pierrick Fedrigo who launched the decisive offensive. He finally took 4th place. 
 

Sports director Sébastien Hinault said:

"I am very pleased with our collective performance. We were in the mix all day. The riders have applied the tactic. We are inevitably a little disappointed to take 4th place, especially because Pierrick was strong. We didn’t miss much. We have nothing to reproach to the riders.”

Pierrick Fedrigo added:

"The whole team has done a very good job. To get the win, we had to make the race hard but unfortunately it did not pay off. If I had not attacked on the last climb, I think we would have been 20 for the sprint. I'm disappointed because there was no victory but I'm happy with my feelings and to play for the win. We had a great team spirit today. "

Excellent fifth place for ONE Pro Cycling in Dunkirk queen stage

For ONE Pro Cycling, Yanto Barker and Kristian House found themselves in the first break of the day as 11 riders escaped off the front of the peloton, quickly increasing their lead to 3 minutes. Hitting the finishing circuit the breakaway was whittled down to seven riders with Barker and House working well in the group.

With 70km remaining, the group was finally brought back on the brutal climb up Mont Cassel.

With the brutal pressure in the peloton it was quickly reducing in number as riders were shelled on each passing lap. Dion Smith was feeling strong but needed to stay on his toes, constantly making sure he was as positioned in the first 25 riders in order to stay out of trouble.

Living up to its title of the ‘queen stage’ only 27 riders including Dion Smith remained in the peloton with two laps to go. Smith was constantly picking his wheels and making sure he was always on the right side of any splits in the peloton. 

In an action packed final climb the race leader slipped away in a group of 3 with Dion Smith chasing just behind. It was a frantic sprint for the line on the cobbles in Cassel with Kiwi Dion Smith claiming an impressive 5th place on the stage and now sits 4th overall on the GC going into the 5th and final stage tomorrow.

Danish time triallist impresses for Stölting in Dunkirk queen stage

Rasmus Quaade showed his strength in the final and took 9th place.

Eleven riders including Michael Reihs formed the break of the day and built a gap of several minutes. Halfway through the nine laps of the finishing circuit only seven escapees were left 40 seconds ahead of the peloton; soon after Reihs also dropped back. The peloton rode a race of attrition with riders being dropped all the time. A sidewind section on the fourth-to-last lap split the field meaning that only some 20 riders were left in the first group in the final – including Rasmus Quaade.

When the last survivors of the early break had been caught there were several attacks which however never lasted long. Quaade suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap but made it back to the field just in time for the final lap. He rode well on the final climb, followed a move by Niki Terpstra (Etixx – Quick Step) and then dropped the Dutch champion, finishing in 9th place 11 seconds behind stage winner Xandro Meurisse (Crelan – Vastgoedservice). He moved up to 9th place overall.

The Dane commented after the stage: “I’ve trained well in the past weeks and felt great today. Most of the time, I could hide in the peloton; it did cost some power to chase back after the puncture, of course. I just about made it back. Three riders attacked right at the foot of the climb, but I felt that it was too early to go there, and followed Terpstra when he made his move. Tomorrow I’ll try to defend the ninth place overall with the support of the whole team. But if the opportunity presents itself, I will try to attack in the final.”

Etixx-QuickStep takes teams classification lead in Dunkirk

One attacking group after another. Basically, this was the scenario of the penultimate day in the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque, as many riders tried to foil the plans of the favourites. Among them was also Etixx – Quick-Step's Stijn Vandenbergh – winner of a Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage earlier this year – who booked a place in a four-man group which managed to stay at the front for more than 20 kilometers before being reeled in on the last of the nine laps the riders had in line for the fourth stage (Andruicq – Cassel, 178.2 kilometers) of the French race.

It was a good day for Etixx – Quick-Step, who climbed to the top of the teams classification thanks to the solid placings of Yves Lampaert, Niki Terpstra and Vandenbergh. Together with the other riders of the team, they will try to defend this position on Sunday, while also helping Maximiliano Richeze in the bunch sprint which is expected to conclude this year's edition.