Eneco Tour 2016: The Route

The 2016 Eneco Tour is held from Monday, September 19, to Sunday, September 25. The race is a perfect preparation for the World Championships in Doha as it features quite a numbers of sprint stages and both an individual time trials and a team time trial. Yet, the closing stage is the Eneco-version of the Tour of Flanders. (Slideshow route/profile)

Stage 1 is set in Friesland. The most nothern region of the Netherlands is extremely flat, so fast men can eat their hearts out. At 9.6 kilometres, stage 2 is an individual time trial on a course that brought homerider Tom Dumoulin a victory back in 2014. No hills, just pushing as hard as you can in the streets of Breda, a town in the south of the Netherlands, close to the Belgian border.

Stage 3 is played out on Belgian soil. Leading to Ardooie, we can except a bunch sprint to ignite. Just take a look at the Ardooie-winners in recent editions and you'll know the most likely outcome. Tom Boonen (twice), Nacer Bouhanni, Mark Renshaw, Tyler Farrar, André Greipel...

The first Flemish hills in the 2016 Eneco Tour are on the menu in stage 4. Possibly the Bruine Put, a 900 metres ramp at 8.2%, is going to thwart some fast men's dreams. Especially when Peter Sagan feels like going on the attack at the steep climb. Once atop it’s only 12.7 kilometres left to the finish line.

The team time trial in the Eneco Tour is scheduled for Friday, September 23. At 20.9 kilometres, the route of stage 5 is on flat to rolling roads. Same goes for the 6th stage, which is played out on two circuits between neighbouring to wns Riemst and Lanaken.

The closing stage of the Eneco Tour is set for Sunday, September 25. At 194.6 kilometres, it's going to be a grueling experience featuring 21 (cobbled) climbs. The finish is at the notorious Wall of Geraardsbergen.