Sawt Falasteen - Merlier looking to 'survive' Tour de France until Paris

The 33-year-old Belgian underlined his status as the fastest sprinter in the world as he claimed a sixth Tour stage victory overall, having won once in 2021 and twice last year.

But with no other obvious sprint stages left at this year's 113th edition of the Tour, Merlier will now merely concentrate on trying to get to Paris to finish on the Champs Elysees.

When asked what his aim at the Tour would be from now on, Merlier said: "Try to survive, maybe."

"Of course, everyone wants to go to Paris," he added.

"If you are mentally (given) up, you don't go to Paris, but if you have the feeling, 'okay, I'm able to follow a good groupetto who want to go to Paris', then of course it's more easy.

"I remember from last year, the last week was really a fight with myself, but now I see on my watch (that my) recovery is okay day by day.

"Last year (that) was different."

One thing that Merlier will not be targeting is the sprinters' green points jersey.

Although he has won three stages, he is down in fourth in those standings, 50 points behind former world champion Mads Pedersen.

One difference between the pair is that Pedersen has worked hard to take intermediate sprint points, while his team has often pushed the pace on short climbs to try to drop the fastest sprinters such as Merlier before those sprints.

"You (have) always got to try, but I think if you go to jump just before a real mountain, you blow up," said Merlier.

"Last year I was, in the last three or four days, still second or third in the green jersey classification and (Jonathan) Milan did still the sprints for it, the team control also for it.

"But I didn't sprint anymore because if you blow up, you can go home also.

"So no, the green jersey is not a goal anymore."

- 'It would be crazy' -

Pedersen leads the green jersey competition by 40 points from Eritrea's Biniam Girmay but he could have lost 20 points after race commissaires decided to review the intermediate sprint, suspecting the Dane of having squeezed Belgian Jasper Philipsen against the barriers.

But Pedersen was let off with a warning, a day after he had announced his impending retirement -- following the World Championships in Denmark in 2029.

"It'd be a special place to end a career," Pedersen had told Danish channel TV2 on Wednesday evening.

"People will still sit and write that it's sad for me to stop after the World Championships in Copenhagen on Danish soil, but it would be completely crazy for me, and I hope it would be a huge party."

Meanwhile, reigning champion Tadej Pogacar had his eyes on the weekend's back-to-back mountain stages in the eastern Vosges.

He is particularly looking forward to Saturday's 155km ride from Mulhouse to Le Markstein Fellering.

"I did the recon of the final loop and it's a really, really beautiful area," said Pogacar.

"I was there with (team-mate) Isaac (Del Toro), we did nice training together and we enjoyed it a lot.

"It was quiet and beautiful scenery, beautiful climbs, descents also.

"I like this area. If you grow up there as a cyclist, you must be a good cyclist because it's so nice to ride."

M.AbuKhalil--SF-PST