The 1st stage of the BinckBank Tour navigates the borders of East Flanders and Zeelandic Flanders. The route is extremely flat, so a bunch sprint is next to certain.
The race has never before visited Hulst. The last 45 kilometres include two local laps around the fortified medieval city.
Young Fabio Jakobsen sprinted to the first leader’s jersey of last year’s BinckBank Tour. Outgunning Marcel Kittel, Caleb Ewan and Dylan Groenewegen, the current Dutch champion was only 21 years old at the time.
Starting at kilometre 158.4, the Golden Kilometre serves 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.
The race is expected to finish around 16.25 local time.
Other interesting reads:
– live race report
– this week’s route
– start list
– GC favourites
BinckBank Tour 2019: route, profile, more
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