The Eneco Tour is the main stage race in Belgium and the Netherlands. It starts the day after the Tour de Pologne finished but not many teams will be present in both races. The race will again be of category HC, which means that not all the World Tour teams will be present. As in Poland, only 15 teams will feature at the start of the race which will make up for a rather small peloton. Nevertheless, there are quality teams like Lotto, Etixx and BMC at the starting line.
The route is really simple for the first 4 days of racing, which will mostly be opportunities for the sprinters to add to their tally of wins for the year. However, the last stages include a short time trial, a stage in the Ardennes and a stage with some of the climbs that feature in the Tour de Flanders. Therefore, the favorites are a mixed bag of candidates with very different abilities. Nevertheless, the past has shown that the time trialists have an edge normally as they are able to survive among the best in the rest of the stages. Cameron Meyer, 2015 winner, will be at the start but Astana did not sign up for the race and that means that Marcel Kittel, who was 1st in 2014 and 2nd in 2015, will be missing.
Favorites:
- Tony Martin (Lotto - Soudal): Tony Martin has had an outstanding season so far, which led him to win the Tour de Romandie and 2 stages in the Tour de France. His good performances have not been limited to the time trials but he was able to be very close to the best in the mountains in the Criterium du Dauphine, where he finished 4th in the GC. The time trial gap that he gets might be enough for him survive the mini-Liege and the mini-Flanders that await the riders in the last couple of stages. If he survived the mountains he may as well be at the front in those stages.
- David Millar (HTC - Highroad): It looked like David Millar could be the next rider dominating the time trials after Cameron Meyer was starting to give signs that his reign was over during last year. However, Millar has been completely overshadowed by Tony Martin this season. The British was only able to win the final time trial in the Tirreno - Adriatico but came 2nd in the time trial of the Dauphine, Tour de Suisse and the European Championship. He could have a good chance this week, especially considering that he is on paper a better rider in that last days' cobbles than Martin.
- Cameron Meyer (Trek - Segafredo): Cameron Meyer is the last winner of the Eneco Tour. He did it in 2015, when he based his overall win on a very good time trial. He went on to stay with the best in the following two stages and took the overall win. However, he has been not his usual self this year so far. He has only won the National Championship so far and his performance in the Tour was far from ideal. Nevertheless, he is likely the best rider in the hills among the best time trialists so he will have a shot at the overall win.
- Joost van Leijen (Team Giant - Alpecin): Van Leijen is a completely different rider to the other favorites for the win. The Giant rider may have been the best hills rider in the season and in the 6th stage finishing in La Redoute he may cause havoc. He will surely lose time in the previous time trial and the difficulty for him is that he has not a good enough team to make the race hard in the hills. Nevertheless, if we consider the kind of performances that he has put this season mean that he will have a shot at the podium if he is fit.
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Levi Leipheimer and Johan Vansummeren (HTC - Highroad), Rein Taaramae (Team Katusha), Michael Rogers (Trek - Segafredo), Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Soudal) and Fabian Cancellara (Cannondale - Drapac).
The best sprinters at the start of the race will be Lloyd Mondory (Etixx - Quickstep), Ben Swift (Vacansoleil - DMC), Mark Renshaw (BMC Racing Team), Andre Greipel (Lotto - Soudal), Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r - La Mondiale) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek - Segafredo).
The Eneco Tour starts in Koksijde, Belgium, this season, close to the French border. The route will be quite easy as the whole stage takes place in Flanders and there are none of the hills that make the region the focus of the early spring classics. Only the climb to Rodeberg, halfway through the stage, will make the riders climb for slightly more than 1 kilometer. The final kilometers will take place in a 15 kilometers long circuit around the town of Ardooie, where the finish line is placed. There will also be two intermediate sprints within the last 40 kilometers.
Only Romain Feillu (FDJ) was leading the race at the top of the Roseberg but with 99 kilometers to go his attempt looked doomed to fail. He had just jumped from the bunch as a bigger group of 7 riders had been caught a few kilometers before. That was a dangerous group with riders like Luke Rowe (HTC) and Jens Debusschere (LottoNL). It was considered too dangerous to be allowed to go ahead and there was a chase for many kilometers with riders from BMC, Vacansoleil and Etixx leading the main bunch. It was a start of the Eneco Tour much more difficult than expected for many.
The stage was uneventful in the kilometers leading to the final circuit around Ardooie. With only Romain Feillu ahead, the peloton did not have to work much to catch him. The first intermediate sprint was placed at the entrance to the circuit, 39 kilometers to the finish line. Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) won the sprint ahead of Andre Greipel (Lotto) and Bernhard Eisel (LottoNL). The gap to Feillu was 3' 20'' as Giant was setting the pace in the bunch. The German team clearly has high hopes for Joost van Leijen (Giant) in the GC of the race and are willing to control these flat stages.
Romain Feillu was making his best to stay ahead but with 13 kilometers he was about to be caught by the main bunch. The peloton was already preparing the final sprint and BMC had taken over the lead of the bunch with Alessandro Ballan (BMC) and Julien Simon (BMC) as their sprinter, Mark Renshaw (BMC), moved to the front. Vacansoleil was also moving to the front of the bunch in order to work for Ben Swift (Vacansoleil). There are several good sprinters in the race and given that potentially the first 4 stages could end up in a mass sprint they will have time to battle.
The sprint trains were set up quite soon as many teams were fighting to control the pace and put their sprinters ahead. Vacansoleil were the best positioned with 3 kilometers to go as Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil) was ready to work for Ben Swift. They had Gregory Rast (Orica) right behind. BMC were almost on par with them as Filippo Pozzato (BMC) would be the last man for Mark Renshaw, who in turn had Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) on his wheel. Etixx also had a train with Michael van Staeyen (Etixx) ready to lead Lloyd Mondory (Etixx), while John Degenkolb (HTC) was behind. We could also see Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek), Jure Kocjan (Katusha) and Andre Greipel (Lotto) close to the front.
Stefan van Dijk was a really good lead out man for Ben Swift. The Dutch could even be fighting for the stage himself if he was not leading Swift. This allowed the Vacansoleil riders to take the lead a bit more than 1 kilometer away from the finish line. They had even managed to leave Gregory Rast behind. Lloyd Mondory had actually abandoned the wheel of his teammate and was trying to follow the British. Meanwhile, Mark Renshaw was blocked among other riders and struggling to make progress. John Degenkolb was the only rider with a clear path and making progress.
Stefan van Dijk led Ben Swift until they were 700 meters from the finish line. Many of his rivals were trying to get close to him but he was on a perfect position to get the win. Mark Renshaw was gaining a lot of positions and he had Lloyd Mondory right to his left. However, other riders like Giacomo Nizzolo, Bernhard Eisel and Gregory Rast were really close to them. The win was still up for grabs but one of these riders would have to do a perfect sprint to catch Ben Swift. This sprint is also a chance to see riders that do not normally join the mass sprints of more important races.
Ben Swift wins in Ardooie! There was no chance of Ben Swift losing today's stage and, even though it was not the best of his sprints, he clearly won the stage and will be the first leader of the race. It had been quite a while since he had won as his last win was the 2nd stage of last year's Giro d'Italia. Swift could hold on the rest of the sprinters behind but Mark Renshaw was quite close to snatching the win from him. He finished 2nd ahead of Lloyd Mondory. They both suffered small problems in the preparation for the mass sprint and that caused them to lose their chances for the win. The top 5 was rounded by Peter Sagan (Sky) and Nacer Bouhanni.
Swift will have to be grateful to the very good sprint train that Vacansoleil set up for him. Stefan van Dijk was clearly stronger than any other domestique that the other teams brought to this race and it was a huge help for the British. He could well maintain the lead tomorrow and in the next stages to come. The biggest test will be in stage 2 as the finish line in Vorst is slightly uphill and small gaps could potentially appear between the strongest riders and the rest of the bunch.
The second stage of the Eneco Tour is also quite flat but it will be the most difficult among those in the first 4 days of racing. The most difficult part of the stage will be towards the middle of the race, with 4 consecutive climbs in the outskirts of Ronse. Among those the riders will have to tackle the cobbled climbs to the Kruisberg and the Mont Saint-Laurent. The Bruine Put will be the last difficulty, 14 kilometers from the finish line, with an average 5.9% gradient for 1 kilometer. Given that the final kilometer is also slightly uphill, it will not be a mass sprint that we can take for granted.
The first intermediate sprint was placed in Mont, the last of the climbs in the middle part of the stage. A group of 4 was ahead with a gap of 7 minutes over the main bunch. The riders in the break were Gianni Meersman (Orica), Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Tiesj Benoot (Trek) and Fabian Cancellara (Cannondale). There had not been much of a fight to form the break and the peloton had been quiet until the cobbled climbs. It was a bit different as they hit the Mont Saint-Laurent as Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto) and George Hincapie (Lotto) increased the pace. However, all they managed was to drop their teammate Tony Martin (Lotto) alongside Wilco Kelderman (Giant) and Michael Rogers (Trek).
The second intermediate sprint was placed in Alsemberg, a town already close to Brussels and only 20 kilometers from the finish line. The peloton that had split in the climbs at the middle of the stage soon came back together as Lotto quickly corrected their mistake. However, it was not peace and quiet since then and there were attempts by Ian Stannard (Sky), Tom Boonen (BMC) and Simon Clarke (HTC), which were replied by the leader himself, Ben Swift (Vacansoleil). However, they did not go too far. In the sprint, Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) beat Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) and Andre Greipel (Lotto), while the gap for the break had dropped to 1' 15''.
Fabian Cancellara was the rider doing most of the work at the front of the break and with 9 kilometers to go they still were maintaining a gap of 45 seconds over the bunch. They still had a chance, although the terrain was not particularly good for them. The fact that the final kilometer was slightly uphill meant that the teams of the sprinters were not that involved but the peloton was driven by Chris Sutton (Lotto) and Jonas van Genechten (Giant) with the occasional help from Vacansoleil. Tom Boonen had tried to get away again at the Bruine Put but once again had been reeled back in by the bunch.
The final long straight towards Vorst was too much for the break and they were finally caught with 4 kilometers to go. However, things did not settle as Johan Vansummeren (HTC) attacked straight away and was followed by Ben Swift. The leader was really committed to maintaining the first place in the GC but was wasting a lot of energies. With 3 to go they had 12 seconds over Tom Boonen and 16 over the main bunch. It did not look like much for the terrain they had ahead. Nick Nuyens (Lotto) and George Hincapie (Lotto) were leading the bunch and they are both very good rouleurs so their chances were not great.
Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) attacked with 2 kilometers to go and got to the leaders as they were close to the last kilometer kite. Johan Vansummeren and Ben Swift faced a struggle if they were to be fared against the French, who should be much better in an uphill sprint. They all had 20 seconds over the bunch, which looked enough on the face of the last kilometer incline. A few of the sprinters had started their final rush and Nacer Bouhanni was leading the bunch. We could also see others like Giacomo Nizzolo, Andre Greipel and Theo Bos (Cannondale) close to the front. It was difficult to predict but the front 3 had a good chance.
Halfway through the final upwards slope, Lloyd Mondory had left behind Ben Swift and Johan Vansummeren and was soloing towards the finish line in Vorst. He had a gap of 8 seconds over his chasers, who were close to being swallowed by the main bunch. Today's route generated a lot of attacks but most of them would be unsuccessful in the end. At the bunch, Andre Greipel was leading the way but he is not the best sprinter for an uphill. He was followed by two riders that should be much better suited to the finish today, like Mark Renshaw (BMC) and Giacomo Nizzolo. However, they were too far behind to fight for the win.
Lloyd Mondory wins in Vorst! The French had no rival in the final 2 kilometers of today's stage and easily managed to grab the stage win, his 8th of the year. He did not need much work from his teammates and he is a rider that thrives when the strong sprint trains cannot be set up properly. His uphill finish was so strong that he even put 11 seconds between himself and the rest of the bunch. The second place went to Johan Vansummeren with Ben Swift 3rd. The British tried hard to unsuccessfully defend his leaders jersey. The top 5 was completed by Mark Renshaw and Nacer Bouhanni.
The small time gap that Mondory got at the finish line was enough for him to grab the leader's jersey after the stage. He will have 11 seconds over Ben Swift and 17 over most of the riders. He could be a contender for the final GC if his time trial abilities were a bit better but he is expected to lose considerable time in the stage 5 time trial. Nevertheless, he will still have a chance to increase his margin thanks to bonus seconds in the next couple of stages. They are both close to the sea in the Netherlands and they are pan flat as many parts of it are in lands claimed from the sea.
The race moves to the Netherlands for the third stage, which will take place in the south-western part of the country. This part of the country is completely flat and the profile of today's stage may be the flattest in the whole year. The wind could have been the only difficulty of the stage but the day was quite calm today and it looked a perfect day for a mass sprint at the finish line. This was placed in the middle of the Brouwersdam, one of the many dikes that protect the country from flooding from the North Sea. Given the perfect conditions, it will be difficult for any attackers to have a chance today.
The first intermediate sprint was placed in the wind park of Stampersgat, one of the windfarms owned by Eneco, the sponsor of the race. It was placed 150 kilometers from the finish line and there was a group already settled at the front of the race. It was only formed of 3 riders: Luke Rowe (HTC), Moreno Hofland (LottoNL) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Dimension Data). They had already built a 3 minutes gap over the bunch but still had a long way to go. Meanwhile, Andre Greipel (Lotto) beat Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) and Theo Bos (Cannondale) in the main bunch but the pace in general was quite easy and no team wanted to take responsibility the chase.
The first passage through the finish line in the Brouwersdam was also used to host the second intermediate sprint of the day. This time it was Nacer Bouhanni who beat Andre Greipel and Theo Bos to collect the points. With 65 kilometers to go, the peloton was already cutting down the gap of the early break. It was around 5 minutes at the sprint. Several teams like Vacansoleil, BMC and Etixx were contributing riders to the chase and the stage seemed completely controlled by the bunch. At the break, Luke Rowe won both sprints and the bonus seconds could push him up the GC even if they were caught.
Luke Rowe was still trying to make the break survive a bit longer but with 9 kilometers to go their gap was tiny. The strength of the peloton in this completely flat terrain and straight road was too much for the break. Several good rouleurs were relaying at the front, like Jos van Emden (Etixx), Alessandro Ballan (BMC) and Maarten Tjallingii (Etixx). The only thing that could have spiced up the race, the wind, was non-existent so it was an easy day for many riders. However, we had seen crashes by George Hincapie (Lotto) and Luka Mezgec (LottoNL). The Slovenian looked a bit hurt.
The break was caught as expected and with 3 kilometers to go it was a battle of 3 teams trying to take the lead of the bunch. Vacansoleil was winning so far as they had Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil) ready to lead Ben Swift (Vacansoleil). A surprising Jurgen Roelandts (Sky) was right behind, even though Peter Sagan (Sky) was in principle the main sprinter for the team. Tom Boonen (BMC) would be the last man to prepare the sprint for Mark Renshaw (BMC), who had Joost van Leijen (Giant) right behind. On the other side of the road, Michael van Staeyen (Etixx) was ahead of Lloyd Mondory (Etixx). We could also see other sprinters like Andre Greipel, Nacer Bouhanni and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) well positioned ahead of the sprint.
It was a similar story to the one we had in the first stage as Stefan van Dijk was doing an outstanding job for Ben Swift. The British almost seemed to struggle to catch the wheel of his teammate. Jurgen Roelandts was suffering and could not follow the Vacansoleil riders. Both sprint trains from BMC and Etixx were considerably behind the Vacansoleil riders and they would need to work quite a bit to get to the front. However, riders like Lloyd Mondory, Andre Greipel and Mark Renshaw are all very fast finishers that could well put Swift into trouble.
Ben Swift emerged from behind Stefan van Dijk with around 700 meters to go but Jurgen Roelandts was able to close the gap to them and was still taking the tow of the British. Lloyd Mondory and Mark Renshaw had also started their own sprints but were a bit far behind and there was not much space for them to close the gap. The sprint was meant to be very fast as the stage was not too hard for the sprinters and the leaders. We could also see Joost van Leijen in the mix. The Giant rider has proven this season how strong he is and it is not strange to see him joining mass sprints every now and then.
Ben Swift wins in the Brouwersdam! The British takes his second win this week but it was a much closer sprint than what it looked possible with 500 meters to go. Both Lloyd Mondory and Mark Renshaw threatened Swift, with the Australian taking the 2nd place at the finish line. Swift had not won this season before the Eneco Tour but he is compensating for his lack of results. Nevertheless, even though there are good sprinters in the race, Swift was expected to grab wins in better scenarios. The top 5 of the stage was completed by Jurgen Roelandts and Andre Greipel.
It is quite strange to see Greipel so downbeat this week considering the competition that he is facing. His season is almost over but he should be preparing the Cyclassics Hamburg. It is also unclear whether he will be in the team for the World Championship in Bergen. Nevertheless, he will have another opportunity tomorrow, probably the last mass sprint that we will see in this year's Eneco Tour. We still have all of the favorites very close to the front of the race in the GC and only the time trial on Friday will start to generate gaps in the GC.
The evening after the stage in the Eneco Tour was used to hold the presentation of a new Pro Continental team that will join the ranks next year: Bora - Hansgrohe. The German team stated that their first intention is to be settled as an important team in the second tier of the cycling world. They have acknowledged that getting a wildcard for the Tour de France will be really hard in 2018 but they are confident of starting the Giro d'Italia.
On a different note, there have been rumors of new youngsters becoming professional next season. Among the most promising riders are Primoz Roglic, Simon Yates, Dylan Teuns, Caleb Ewan and Oliver Naesen.
There was not much to choose between yesterday's and today's stage in the Eneco Tour. The stage will start in the Belgian side of the border, in Essen, but will soon cross towards the Netherlands. The stage will be again completely flat and will finish in Vlijmen, with a 27 kilometers circuit around the town on the outskirts of 's Hertogenbosch. The mass sprint seems again unavoidable as the weather will be very good for cycling, even if not as sunny as yesterday. Ben Swift has the chance of a hat-trick and he may not let go of that opportunity.
There was not much hope for the riders in the break and only 3 of them joined the early break. They were Sergey Lagutin (Katusha), Gianni Meersman (Orica) and Cyril Gautier (FDJ). With 95 kilometers to go they had built a gap of 5' 45'' but the race looked controlled by the main bunch. The small gaps in the GC means that many teams are willing to collaborate in the chase and Vacansoleil, Giant and BMC were all contributing. Meersman was 7th in the GC before the start of the stage, only 15 seconds behind the leader, Lloyd Mondory (Etixx).
The second intermediate sprint was placed in Drunen, already in the final circuit around Vlijmen and 47 kilometers from the finish line. Andre Greipel (Lotto) was the quickest in the sprint of the bunch ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) and Bernhard Eisel (LottoNL) but there were many good sprinters that were not bothered about the intermediates. Meanwhile, the gap to the early break was 3' 30''. The peloton needed to chase but the gap did not look difficult to close, especially considering that Vacansoleil and BMC were putting several riders each at the front.
Sergey Lagutin was trying to appear on TV for a few extra kilometers but with 10 to go the gap was only 25 seconds over the main bunch. The break had been completely under control by the teams of the sprinters all day long and there were riders like Julien Simon (BMC), Giovanni Visconti (Etixx) and Maxime Vantomme (Vacansoleil) leading the group ahead of the closing part of the stage. The teams of the sprinters should be very well positioned ahead of the last couple of kilometers as there were four 90 degrees turns in that part, which would make it difficult to recover any positions.
Vacansoleil has been normally dominating the last kilometers of the stages but it was BMC that took the lead today with 3 kilometers to go. Tom Boonen (BMC) would be leading Mark Renshaw (BMC), who had Theo Bos (Cannondale) right behind. Vacansoleil was not far behind and Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil) would again be the last man working for Ben Swift (Vacansoleil), while a different Sky rider, Peter Sagan (Sky), was sitting on his wheel today. Etixx also had a train with Michael van Staeyen (Etixx) ahead of Lloyd Mondory. Among the other sprinters that were well positioned we could find Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r), Bernahrd Eisel and Giacomo Nizzolo.
Tom Boonen was doing a great job for Mark Renshaw today and they were leading the group as they were about to reach the last kilometer banner. However, that last kilometer was quite dangerous with 3 turns before the finish line and there were many riders close to the front of the group. Positioning would be of paramount importance today. Ben Swift and Lloyd Mondory were not far behind so it was quite likely that they would have a good shot at the win, while Theo Bos was perfectly positioned behind Renshaw. On the other hand, Andre Greipel was again too far behind and it would be hard for him to challenge.
Mark Renshaw was caught napping while the other sprinters started their on final sprint and it was again Ben Swift taking the lead with 600 meters to go. Nevertheless, it was very tight at the front and Theo Bos was almost on par with Swift, while others like Jurgen Roelandts, Lloyd Mondory, Mark Renshaw and Nacer Bouhanni were all right behind. Swift had won in the Eneco Tour mostly thanks to the lead outs that Stefan van Dijk could provide and today he was struggling to gain an advantage. That could prove him beatable. It was also a nice surprise to see Theo Bos so close to the front as he had not had any meaningful so far in the season.
Ben Swift wins in Vlijmen! There is no beating Swift in this Eneco Tour as the British takes his 3rd win of the week in only 4 stages. It looks as if he had been saving himself for this week during the rest of the season. This is also a great sign ahead of the Cyclassics Hamburg next week. It was rather surprising as he had not looked this fast in final sprints during the week and others like Mark Renshaw and Lloyd Mondory had appeared quicker in raw speed terms. The French had to settle for the 2nd place in today's stage, while the third position went to Nacer Bouhanni ahead of Mark Renshaw and Theo Bos.
The final kilometer was quite dangerous and there was a crash towards the middle of the bunch that took down riders like Simon Clarke (HTC) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale). The Australian was having a very good part of the season and it is a shame to see him lose his chances in the GC due to a crash. All in all the last few stages have more or less met the expectations as there were not really difficulties for the riders. We could have hoped for wind in the Netherlands but in the end it was quite straight-forward sprint stages. The picture will change tomorrow as we will have a time trial in Sittard-Geleen that will produce gaps in the GC.
