Category: Previews

Arnhem > Arnhem (150km/men & 71km/women) The final stage of the Eneco Tour, unfortunately the GC is all over in both the men’s and women’s races. The race ends with a lap circuit in Arnhem, where both men and women will roll out together and then the women do 9 laps of the circuit, with...

Cittadella > Bassano del Grappa 157km I love the Veneto Classic, if anything, it deserves to be earlier in the calendar. You’ve got a brutal cobbled climb, an incredibly steep gravel climb, a crazy gravel descent and plenty in-between. The last two editions have incredibly gone the way of the break, something you don’t often...

Utsunomiya > Utsunomiya 140km The 33rd edition of the Japan Cup, it’s a very hard way to end your season. 14 laps of a circuit which features a punchy climb, this is usually a very selective race.  Weather 20 degrees, cloudy sun and not much wind. Lap Circuit The hill is 1.1km at 8.5%, 14 ascents...

Yizhou > NongLa 166km Stage 5 ended with a very messy sprint, one where Magnier and Biesterbos both hit the deck, and it was Milan Fretin who took the win. The Belgian will remember this race with fond memories, he’s now taken his 1st and 2nd world tour wins. Stage 6 and it’s the big GC day...

Hoogeveen > Col du Vam 150km/men & 115km/women Stage 3 of the men’s race was a perfect example of what can happen late in the season. Visma played the multi-leader strategy, Campenaerts now leads the race by 15 seconds to Wessel Mouris, Fisher-Black is at 30 seconds and I’ll skip a few riders to jump...

Jinchengjiang > Yizhou 170km Stage 4 did go the way of the climbing sprinters, Paul Magnier taking his 2nd win of the race. My pick, Olav Kooij, was a DNS, but I’m still taking it as a moral victory! Stage 5 is another which suits the fast men, but with big gaps now on GC, it’s...

Bama > Tian’e 165km Big win today for Milan Fretin, his first at world tour level, in what was another messy sprint. Kooij’s problems continued and Magnier unclipped during the sprint, but Fretin took a deserved win. Stage 4 is much harder than the first three stages, but the sprinters will still hope to fight...

Sittard > Watersley 114km/men & 89km/women As expected, Jakob Söderqvist won the men’s ITT, continuing his fine run of recent form. He now leads the GC by 14 seconds to Hayter and 15 seconds to Fisher-Black. Other notable riders are Reinderink at 22 seconds, with the Visma pair of Campenaerts and Laporte at 29 seconds....

Tilburg > Tilburg 13.5km ITT Day 3 in the Eneco Tour and both men and women are faced with a 13.5km ITT with just 28m of climbing. This is a day for the TT specialists, they’ll hope to gain enough time to put themselves into a strong position on GC with a few challenging days...

Jingxi > Bama 211km Stage 3 is another one quite a few of the riders will know. 211km is a long day in the saddle at this time of year, just under 2000m of climbing means it’s not flat either. Paul Magnier won here in 2025, Ethan Vernon the year before, it’s another stage which...