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The Simac Ladies Tour is the most prestigious women's stage tour in the Netherlands, and despite changes to the official name for sponsorship reasons, the race has remained on the calendar since its first edition in 1998, the year in which the race debuted as the Holland Ladies Tour.

On the other hand, the Dutch riders have been the clear dominators of the women's circuit for years, and in their home race they are even more favorites than anywhere else.

Route

6 stages make up the route of this edition of the race, with the particularity that two time trials are included. The prologue of the first day is only 2.3 km long, but it will already set the first leader, while stage 3 consists of 22.3 km of effort against the clock, and will undoubtedly be decisive for the general classification.

The Simac Ladies Tour also includes several opportunities for sprinters in stages 2, 4 and 5, while the sixth and last may be more prone to the breakaway or a small group sprint.

Favorites

The course without demanding climbs makes it the ideal race for time trialists, rouleurs and sprinters.

Anna van der Breggen (1200) leads a powerful SD Worx team that includes Niamh Fisher-Black (800), Christine Majerus (800), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (1000), Chantal Blaak (600) and Amy Pieters (600). The 6 riders are potential winners of the race and it we’ll see how the roles are distributed within the team, although van der Breggen's superiority against the clock places her as a priori leader.

Trek Segafredo also bring their best 6 to the race, and they are possibly the main threat to SD Worx. Elisa Longo Borghini (1000), Ellen Van Dijk (600) and Elisabeth Deignan (1000) can contest the general classification, while the sprinter of the team is the Italian Letizia Patternoster (600).

Other possible candidates for GC are Lorena Wiebes (1200), Emma Norsgaard (1200), Marianne Vos (1200) or Lisa Brennauer (1000), although we will have to pay attention to the startlist, since there are still many teams to present their lineups.