It’s not just the Tour of Switzerland that acts as a warm-up for the Tour de France. From tomorrow there will also be space for Tour of Belgium, a five-day race that will occupy the cycling schedules until next Sunday and has reached its 93rd edition in its history. With a route truly suitable for everyone, from sprinters to climbers.
We start by winking at the fast wheels. First a time trial on the streets of Beringen, 12.6 kilometers but which should not be too tortuous, while the Merelbeke-Knokke-Heist, of 184.2 kilometres, it includes some slight ups and downs but should be the prerogative of the sprinters present, primarily Jasper Philipsen expected to return to the bike after more than two months.
This is how there is a clear variation with the Turnhout – Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, of 188.5 kilometres, which at the end includes a circuit to be repeated twice with the climbs of Hetrot, Roeselbert and Kerkstraat, here someone will be able to try the sortie.
But it is only an appetizer for the queen stage, with departure and arrival in Durbuy: not even a meter of flat terrain in a route to be repeated five times with Champ Des Hetres (2.1 km at 2.7%), Petite Somme (2.2 km at 5.8%) and Cote de Hermanne (2.2 km at 5.8%), with the Mur de Durbuy ( 1.2 km at 6.2%) to open the dance from the second lap onwards. Everything will be decided there before the group sprint to Brussels.
Precisely from the sprinters’ point of view, the race could surprise. Said of Philipsen, also present Tim Merlier, Fabio Jakobsen and Olav Kooij, with the last two wanting to recover after the more or less slight disappointments of the Giro. And perhaps, on mixed days, we could discover some new names, also given the absence of the outgoing winner Mathieu van der Poel.
