The 60th Tour of Turkey, it’s the usual mix of sprints and tougher stages. 

Liège > Liège 252km The fourth monument of the season. So far, Van der Poel has won two and Pogačar has one, after Flèche Wallonne, the Slovenian starts the race as the big favourite as he looks to win this race for the 3rd time but after what happened in Amstel Gold, some doubts still remain.

Lienz > Lienz 113km I expected a chaotic stage, but I didn’t expect that. Arensman went very long, took the stage win and now leads the GC. Gee looked like he might get across to him, but he blew and was nearly caught by a storming, Michael Storer. The rest of the GC riders finished over 2 minutes behind the Aussie, making the GC look like it’s between Arensman and Storer with just one stage to go. Hopefully stage 5 is as good as stage 4.

Sillian > Obertilliach 163km Stage 4 and we head to Austria. Storer is still in the race lead, but Tudor don’t look overly strong, and the Aussie is sure to come under pressure in the last two stages. They were happy for the break to win today, the same will go for the rest of the week, it’s up to other teams to chase for the stage.

Ciney > Huy 205km Last year, Côte de Cherave was removed from the race due to roadworks, so the organisers went for four laps of the Mur de Huy, this year we revert to normal. Cherave is back, which is great news for the race and it’s back to three laps of the circuit. After what happened on Sunday, get ready for another cracking race.

Sterzing > Innichen 146km Another day and maybe another day watching AG2R riders chase each other down. 

Mezzolombardo > Sterling 178km The second stage of the race is the hardest of the week, 4137m of climbing is a lot. Nearly half of the climbing comes from km 20 to km 62, the start is incredibly challenging. How the peloton approaches the start will be interesting, hopefully it’s an aggressive day.

San Lorenzo Dorsino > San Lorenzo Dorsino 149km The opening stage is very typical of this race, one where a few different possibilities can play out. A late attack could succeed, or the stage ends in a reduced sprint, we’ll have to wait and see how the finale develops.

The Tour of Alps basically has 5 mountain stages but continues the weird trend of refusing to have a proper mountaintop finish, I have no idea why they hate them so! As usual, just about every main rider is here after an altitude camp, getting crucial racing in the legs before the Giro. Predicting just how they respond is always a little bit tricky, it’s really about how they perform in May, but they’d all love to have a good week. Please note, intermediate sprints don’t have any bonus seconds this week, but there’s still 10-6-4 at the finish.

Pontarlier > Morteau 197km Since 2016 the race has gone from Morteau to Pontarlier, now it’s switched, and the profile is quite different too. This is the final race in the series of three, there’s still a chance for teams to get something out of this block.