Previous editions of the Eneco/BinckBank Tour featured a Blankenberge-Ardooie stage. Although the route was not exactly the same, the outcome was – a bunch sprint. In 2016, Peter Sagan outgunned Danny van Poppel and Nacer Bouhanni, while the World Champion also won last year’s sprint, this time ahead of Edward Theuns and Rudy Barbier.
While Blankenberge hosted the race only twice, Ardooie is a regular. Sagan’s sprint victories were preceded by Tom Boonen (2015) and Nacer Bouhanni (2014) and in 2013 Mark Renshaw jumped clear in the last kilometre to hold off the sprinting peloton.
Following the start in seaside resort Blankenberge the route commences with a local lap before continuing to Jabbeke, Gistel and Torhout. On flat roads the riders travel to a closing circuit of 15.4 kilometres in Ardooie. This will be raced twice so fast finishers are offered an welcome insight into the closing kilometres and the false flat arrival.
Starting at kilometre 143.1, the Golden Kilometre offers three opportunities to win time bonuses of 3, 2 and 1 seconds within 1,000 metres. The first three riders on the line take 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Read also: results/race report 4th stage 2018 BinckBank Tour.
BinckBank Tour 2018 stage 4: Route maps, height profiles, and more
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