Eneco Tour - 20-27.08.2008

The Eneco Tour stage race is a relatively new race but is the perfect example of how cycling can always evolve and improve. The eight-day race includes stages in Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, and celebrates all that is good about northern European cycling: echelons caused by side winds, team tactics, exciting racing and then fast sprints.

With a lack of major climbs most of the stages are decided in sprint finishes while other riders try desperately to get away in the final kilometres.

In 2007, Belgium’s Nick Nuyens of the Cofidis team, won the opening stage in Holland and proudly wore the leader’s jersey for five days as sprinters such as Mark Cavendish, Robbie McEwen and Luciano Pagliarini won the daily stages. Overall victory was decided in the final day’s time trial, with Spain’s Jose Ivan Gutierrez, of the Caisse d’Epargne team, winning the stage and taking the UCI ProTour points. Britain’s David Millar of Saunier Duval was second, just 11 seconds behind.

This year the Eneco Tour comes a week after the Olympic Games in Beijing and so will mark the start of the second part of the season. The stages will again twist and turn across northern Europe, with Belgium’s Tom Boonen expected to make a return to the race after dominating the sprints in 2006.