News

In Belgium, cycling is the national sport, and although the most famous races in the country are one-day classics such as Ronde van Vlaanderen or Liège-Bastogne-Liège, there are also several stage races. This is the case of the Ethias Tour de Wallonie, which starting next Saturday and for 5 days will take cyclists through the 5 provinces that make up Wallonia, the French-speaking region of the country.

Route

With no clear opportunities for the sprinters, the routes make the most of the orography and the famous Ardennes “côtes”, short but steep climbs characteristic of the most important races in the region such as La Flèche Wallonne or Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Precisely, the opening day ends at the famous Mur d’Huy (1,1 km at 11,2%), the most famous climb of La Flèche Wallonne. Stages 2, 3 and 4 also present hilly profiles without a flat meter, while the last day is the flattest stage and the best suited for a bunch sprint, even when the parcours includes 8 cobbled sectors.

Favorites

World champion Julian Alaphilippe (1000) is a specialist in this terrain and starts as the big favorite for the general classification. Other cyclists who are suited to the course are Biniam Girmay (600), Alex Aranburu (600), Mattias Skjelmose (600), Stefano Oldani (400), Alessandro Covi (400), Ide Schelling (400), Ilan Van Wilder (400), Harm Vanhoucke (400), Edward Dunbar (200), Ben Turner (200), Victor Campenaerts (400), Jake Stewart (200), Thibau Nys (200), Jesús Herrada (200), Axel Zingle (200), Xandro Meurisse (200), Cian Uijtdebroeks (200) or Dries De Bondt (200). The starting list also includes several sprinters such as Pascal Ackermann (800), Fernando Gaviria (800), Tim Merlier (800), Matteo Moschetti (200), Edward Theuns (200), Arne Marit (200), Matthew Walls (200), Arnaud De Lie (200), Sam Welsford (200) or Davide Ballerini (600), but we’ll see if their teams manage to bring any of the stages to a sprint.