They drew quite the attention when they arrived on Belgian shores this spring: Israel Cycling Academy had their first season as a procontinental squad last year, but next year might even be bigger. In preparation of their most high-profile season yet, the team's transfer season has been on fire. Let's take some time to look at it in this fourth (1 , 2 , 3) instalment of "Teams of '18".

After a stellar first year, the innovative Irishmen of Aqua Blue Sport are ready for their second year in existence. 2017 saw the team enliven every breakaway in the early season, take wins in the US and in Switzerland, and finally participate and gain a stage victory in the Vuelta d'Espagna. Unlike Murias-Euskaltel, this started as a procontinental team and will continue on that level, so the fluctuations in line-up are more subtle, yet still worth taking a look at.

Dimitar Kotev on his way to win the 1967 edition

Above is a google streetview look from what's actually near the bottom of the climb. The main climb is around 8 to 10%, but there's gradient up to around 13% after the official top. Afterwards, the pack descends until there's two kickers near the finish: first there's a small hill of around 5% with a steep descent before the pack hits the final climb, a category 2 mountain top finish. The climb is called Mount Nightingale, and at the top is a complex of ancient ruins, including "Meryem Ana Evi", a pilgrimage site for Muslims and Catholics who believe this was the last living place of the Virgin Mary. More relevant for cyclists though is that this Turkish Madonna del Ghisallo tops a 4km climb with an ever rising gradient, from 7% at 3km to go to 10% at the finish line. This climb is sure to decide the overal standings.

The pilgrimage site at the top of the final climb. It's a good thing Markel Irizar isn't starting this race!

Stage 5: Selcuk - Izmir, 166km, flat finish

Another stage with a few hills but a flat finish line. Taking us back to a standard abandoned two stages ago, the stage finishes along the coast. The 2nd cat climb at the rear end of a stage is a bit tougher than the one at stage three, but it's also further away from the finish line. There is potential for teams to work here to drop the fastest of the sprinters, but there's still a high likeliness of a substantial group finishing together.



Stage 6: Istanbul - Istanbul, 143.7km, uphill sprint
The final stage is a prestige stage for Istanbul. In 2016 it was honoured with the first stage if the race, this year with the final stage, and it looks like an interesting stage. It's got a rather flat run in to the finish, with a small 4th category climb on the Asian part of Istanbul. After 54.6 km, the riders take another Beauties of Turkey sprint as they cross over the Bosporus from Asia into Europe. The kicker is in the final of the race: a short, 7% ramp at 1.5km from the line. Last year this ramp allowed for a solo victory for Niemiec, with 11 seconds on his first competitor and 16 on the first group of chasers. If the GC is very close here, there might be a dramatic finish on this day.



Teams & Riders
As is known, the field of riders is not what is expected from a WT race. Only four World Tour teams will show up, along with eight pro-continental squads and a Turkish national selection. ProCyclingStats has got a duo of nifty options: total team strength at a particular race and relative team strength as a percentage of the maximum a team could have sent. It's no surprise that the WT squads have sent relatively 'weak' teams while topping the list in absolute strength regardless. Three of the continental teams, Wilier-Triestina, Gazprom and Caja Rural have brought in relatively strong squads: no surprise as Wilier and Caja Rural will no doubt seek to recreate the success they had in this race last year around.

Astana Pro Team start with a team that's a fraction of what it could deliver, but there's strong names in it nevertheless. Jesper Hansen represents Denmark's hope for this race, while Andrey Zeyts might be the most suitable leader for Astana.

BORA-hansgrohe is sure to leave a mark on this race, even if not going for the GC. Having not finished any race since Milano-Torino last year, it's unlikely that Leopold Konig will find himself back in this race. Sam Bennet is sure to dominate the sprints, with the likes of Shane Archbold and Schwarzmann in his train. Bennet's form is high after winning the Sparkassen Giro and has had a great summer picking up stages and points jerseys in Croatia and Czechia.


Trek-Segafredo have brought a surprisingly well-rounded team, considering. Edward Theuns will be able to contend the sprints, and he's able to get over hills a bit better than Sam Bennet is, which puts him into the hot seat for stage 5 or even the final stage. I'm looking forward to Jarlinson Pantano on Mount Nightingale. Koen de Kort, who isn't starting this race, told a story after the Tour de France about Pantano and Markel Irizar: The very devout Pantano wanted to bless the team with holy water from Lourdes, while staunch atheïst Irizar wanted nothing to do with it: who knows what climbing up towards a pilgrimage site might do for Pantano's fervour!

UAE Team Emirates is the world tour team that has seemingly spent most effort on sending a decent team. In the aforementioned PCS-statistics, they are ranked the strongest team by far, and theirs is the favourite of the race: Diego Ulissi.  He sealed the Italian Ciclismo Cup, and placed top 10 in three Italian autumn classics these past few weeks. Before that, he won the Grand Prix Montreal. The fact that there's only one mountain top finish should work in his favour. He has got Darwin Atapuma in support, who could even strike out for himself on stage four.

Androni - Sidermec - Bottechia and Bardiani-CSF have both brought fully Italian teams to the race. For Androni the most notable rider is Francesco Gavazzi, who has been building up form throughout the Autumn classics, while Bardiani brings some more recognisable names in Barbin, Albanese and Simion.

Caja Rural are the defending champions, placing 1st and 2nd in last years edition. Last year's winner won't be here, but Caja Rural have built a competent squad around runner-up David Arroyo. With the support of Reis, Prades and Rubio the team will surely try to thwart the World Tour squads during this World Tour race.

Martinez after finishing 7th among top climbers in Milano Torino

Gazprom-Rusvelo and Wilier-Triestina have brought out quite the guns for this race. Gazprom's whole list is filled with former WT riders of the likes of Ivan Rovney, Pavel Brutt and Nikolay Trusov. Their most prominent riders are the two Sergey's Firsanov and Lagutin, while statistically Alexander Porsev should be among the better sprinters in the field. Wilier-Triestina is a team that really caught my attention here, as their young talent Daniel Felipe Martinez has shown great form these past few classics and strikes me as the type of rider who could just accidentally win the whole race on stage three. Venezuelan Yonder Godoy and Belarussian Ilia Koshevoy have gotten a small cult following on twitter, and I hope they'll perform well.

CCC-Sprandi, WB Veranclassics and Brazilian outfit Funvic fill out the peloton. CCC have send a surprisingly meager team, while Funvic have send the best they could, which to be fair, isn't too much. Jordi Simón is their most notable rider, who's only UCI-ranked race this year was the Volta Catalunya.

Last on the list is the Turkish National Selection, who at least top the list of most previous participations, with their individual riders having finished this race a combined total of 19 times. Ahmet Örken, the Turkish national TT-champion who'll ride for Israel Cycling Academy next year is their most prominent rider, while Ahmet Akdilek is the rider with the most individual previous starts, having finished the race 5 times.



The verdict:

Diego Ulissi is the top favourite for the overall, while Bennett and Theuns will dig it out in the sprints.
★★★★★ Diego Ulissi
★★★★ David Arroyo, Jarlinson Pantano, Daniel Martinez
★★★ Darwin Atapuma, Sergey Lagutin

Contents:
Recap
The Course
The Teams
Race Prediction
Favourites

Did you enjoy these past few days? I sure did! The World Championships are in full swing now, and the past fews days have been thrilling. The Netherlands have walked away with three elite gold medals -three and a half, depending on who you ask- and each and every one of them was very exciting. Here's a quick recap of how it happened:

Recap:
Team Sunweb took the double in the TTT's, kick starting an enormously successfull championships to crown their already successful year. On Sunday morning, the women's trade teams started on the course. With only 9 teams starting, the clear favourites were Boels and Canyon-Sram, both former champions. It seemed Cervelo-Bigla and Sunweb were destined to fight for the bronze, while recently renamed Team Virtu was the dark horse, with two former individual champions, so they warranted a good look. Unfortunately the team lost Amber Neben to a mechanical early on, while Linda Villumsen was too strong for her team and accidentally dropped her teammates on Salmon Hill. Ellen van Dijk, who was part of the winning Boels squad for years, put her engine to the service of her new team, Sunweb, and pulled her team all the way to the finishing line in a winning time.

Team Sunweb getting turning onto the cobbled section near the Floibanen (cable-car) station in Bergen city-centre

In the men's field, there was another 'dark horse' contender to watch. In fact, there had been so much attention on this dark horse, that Team Sky started the race as almost a favourite. A team of strong riders who almost all combined climbing, cobble stone ánd time trial skills, they were a team with high hopes. Young Owain Doull dropped first, which was expected, but when Geraint Thomas had to drop on Salmon Hill unexpectedly, Sky's hopes were dashed rather quickly, especially when Gianni Moscon's big engine had trouble holding on. It seemed like eternal contenders BMC and Quickstep were going to dig it out for the win, but Sunweb went home with the price, with one of the youngest teams in the field.

Women's Time Trial
I did a preview of the time trial here, and I'm glad to say I wasn't too far off. With the favourites spread out evenly across the starting list, this was a race that was tense and exciting all the way through. Although I've never felt so sure of a prediction as I have when predicting Van Vleuten's win, for a long time it looked like it would be a close race: it had started raining, and until the third split Van Vleuten had been behind and losing time on Van der Breggen. I was glad to see Katrin Garfoot complete the podium. She's had a stellar start to her season but then had to deal with a lot of sickness. The podium was a delightful double-double: a double the Dutch, who got Gold and Silver, and a double for Orica-SCOTT who came home with their first ever rainbow jersey and a bronze medal in addition! Shout-out to Sarah Connolly (@PWCycling) for commenting the race and delighting us with a lot of backstory on the riders!

Men's Time Trial
Unlike the Women's Time Trial, the Men's TT had almost all of the favourites in the last group of starters. It finished on Mount Floyen, the heaviest of the climbs we'll see this championship, and mountain time trialists were expected to carry the day. A late spell of rain threatened to change the day's script, but in the end the day's favourite won -by a mile-. He almost caught his scripted challenger, Chris Froome, in what was a huge ride. Dumoulin did not take the announced bike change, but Slovenian Primoz Roglic did, which resulted in him climbing up the hill in record time and conquering the silver medal.

Course:
All road races take place on the same circuit: although the men will start with a 40 kilometre course before the circuit, all the action is likely to take place in the 19.1 kilometre criss-crossing Bergen. There's a categorised hill on this circuit, Salmon Hill, although it's the weakest of the three named hills we get this championship: the Women's TT took the Birkelundsbakken, which clocked in at an average of 7.2% over 1.4 km, while the Men's TT finished on Mount Floyen, which had an average gradient of 9% over almost three and a half km. The road race however will take Salmon Hill, which was also part of the team time trials.

Salmon Hill, a path going up Mount Ulriken, is a one and a half kilometre hill with an average gradient of 6.4%. Compared to the other two hills this sounds a lot smaller, but during the TTT it showed looks can deceive, and a lot of teams were torn apart on this biter. The first part is the steepest, at almost 8%, but looking at the video's of the TTT, the top bend has got a good final kick to it. On the way to Salmon hill, the riders already have to deal with some gradients: two bergs of 5% colour the route at the 2km and 4km mark respectively. After Salmon hill, it's still nine kilometre to the finish line, most of it a lot flatter than the first 10km: by no means does this guarantee a bunched finish though: not only will the peloton have too many strong teams invested in making this race hard, but although lacking real height differences, these final 10km are never completely flat and dotted with cobbled sections, for example near the lower Floibanen cable-car station. It was in this part that Team Sky's Gianni Moscon struggled very hard during the TTT. The main challenge is in the repetition: although the climb probably won't be enough to grant an attacking climber a solo victory -although, you never know - the fact that the peloton will take it 8 times is likely to cause trouble for the sprint specialists.

Thomas Pidcock on a cobbled section

Contenders
As all World Championship races apart from the TTT go, the race is ridden by national teams. For readability, I've sorted the nations I want to discuss here in three categories based on the strategy I expect from them: likely to work for a sprint finish, likely to work for a selective, hard race and teams that could make it work either way.

Sprinter's teams:

-Denmark and Finland
These Scandinavian nations boast two of the strongest sprinters in the field. Finland's Lotta Lepistö was one of the sprint sensations of 2016, placing 2nd on La Course and 3rd on the World Championships in the flat route of Qatar. This year she's had a tremendous spring, winning Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, two Belgian spring classics. Although she went head-to-head with other sprinters there, these two races show she's more than able to digest a few bergs. Repeating this feature in last month's Crescent Vargarda shows that's she still in form this late in season.

Denmark's Amelie Dideriksen is the reigning world champion and world class sprinter. Her most recent victories are in early spring, though she managed to sprint to a 5th place from the peloton in the European Championships, after Marianne Vos had escaped to take the win. Denmark has got a strong team to support Dideriksen, with the likes of Cecile Uttrup Ludwig and young super talent Pernille Mathiesen in her support, the last of these being Denmarks best hope if the race doesn't end in an sprint.




-Belgium
Belgium arrives to the scene with Jolien D'Hoore as their clear leader. This sprinter's season is dotted with victories throughout the year, including stages at the Women's Tour of Britain and the Giro Rosa. Last month she won the Madrid Challenge, which is La Vuelta's equivalent of the traditional La Course. D'Hoore has got a strong team with her, with rouleurs as Ann-Sophie Duyck and Lotte Kopecky in her service, but I think Salmon hill might be just too much for her.

Puncher teams:

-The Netherlands
The largest squad of the race, with 8 riders, is stocked with talent. Both silver and gold medallists in the time trial are Dutch and are top favourites for the road race again, provided a mass sprint can be avoided. Annemiek van Vleuten en Anna van der Breggen have both had great successes in gruelling stage ánd one-day races. Van der Breggen won the triple crown of the Ardennes week, while Van Vleuten won the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and top 5-ed in all three Ardennes classics. Although Van der Breggen is more successful in one-day races, arriving solo in many of her wins, Van Vleuten was a classics rider before the discovered the huge climbing talent she displayed this year, and might just be able to push out a stronger sprint if she arrives with a small group. In the recent Boels Ladies Tour, the two arrived as a duo at the finishing line of the 5th stage, leaving all other contenders far behind. Van der Breggen took the win there while Van Vleuten secured her GC. I can almost see the two replicating this and tuesday's feat for the road race. It would do the team an injustice if we didn't mention the rest of the team: With Blaak, Brand, Van Dijk, Pietersen and Ensink, each rider of the team is a powerhouse. We can expect a ruthless tactic of never ceasing attacks from all these riders, before the two team leaders attack, each functioning as the other's foil. Road captain is the indomitable Marianne Vos, women's cycling's living legend, capable of attacks and sprints both. Kirsten Wild, the Dutch best sprinter, is only on the reserve list, so if the race ends up a bunch sprint despite the Dutch's best efforts, we might just see Vos in the rainbow jersey once more.

-Australia
Controversy surrounded the selection for this nation's worlds squad: the Australian women have performed well all around the year, and were rewarded with seven spots. However, in a shocking decision that was no doubt motivated by a blatantly sexist disregard for the sport, Australian Cycling chose to send only five riders. Sprinter Chloe Hosking challenged the decision and won a spot on the team for herself and rouleur Neylan. Nevertheless, I expect the Australian squad to stick to the same tactic they would've committed to with their original selection: one of opportunism and attacks. Although lacking the breadth of the Dutch team, the Australians have several talented options. Kartin Garfoot won the bronze in the time trial, but I think Amanda Spratt has got an even bigger chance. The two dominated the Australian pre-season, placing first and second in races with a sort-of-similar parcours to this championships, such as their own national championships and stages in the Santos Tour Down Under.  Balancing a very powerful sprint with the ability to survive a selective race is Gracy Elvin.

Gracie Elvin at the recent Boels Ladies Tour

-South Africa
Asleigh Moolman-Pasio is a great athlete who fights for women's cycling both on and off the bike. She's here without a team to support her, which is fine, as she needs a decimated field to stand a chance at winning here. She's had a great season, riding top 10's in the classics and winning the Emakumeen XXX. Bira and recently the Giro Toscana. In the Emakumeen Bira she won the final stage, with a finish somewhat similar to the world's: a hill of roughly 5% at 10k from the finish. The repetition of Salmon hill throughout the course can only serve to tire out her opponents.

-France
Although she's been through some hard times, Pauline Ferrand Prevot is never to be discounted. She's been showing signs of regaining form and has claimed that she's regained joy in the sport. If she manages to reach the finish with a small group of favourites, she can outsprint them all.

Teams that can go either way:

-United States and United Kingdom
Both these countries are blessed with great sprinters and great punchers. With Coryn Rivera, the US has got arguably the most exciting sprinter of the season. She's won the Tour of Flanders and the Prudential Ride, and she's got it in her to survive a hard race. On the other hand, the team has got Megan Guarnier, a strong GC rider whose form has been picking up all through the season. Across the ocean, the British have got Hanna Barnes who has outsprinted Marianne Vos on home soil this year, but they've also got Lizzie Deignan. If her 2017 seasons looks underwhelming, that's only because the controversial puncher has had such successful seasons before. Of these two nations, I think the US will tend to favour a sprint-focused approach with Rivera, although they won't mind dropping some of the competition, while the UK will have Deignan as their primary contender.

-Italy
With Georgia Bronzini and Elisa Longo-Borghini the Italians have got the ability to go both tactics. Bronzini might not be the strongest sprinter in the field, but she's got a great lead-out in the person of Elena Cecchini, who's capable of sprinting for a good placing for herself too if push comes to shove.  Elisa Longo Borghini is a force to be reckoned with, who won this year's Strade Bianchi and finished second in the Giro.

Will Hannah Barnes, Georgia Bronzini and Coryn Rivera play second fiddle to their team's punchers?

Predictions

Now, for the hardest part: to predict what actually will happen. I'll admit that there's more teams here who will want to race for a sprint than I initially thought. However, the teams that will try to avoid  a bunch sprint , such as the Dutch, the Australians and possibly the Italians and Americans have more strength and depth. Only Denmark will commit fully to bringing about the bunch sprint, again possibly with American support. I think it's likely that the race will mimic the early season classics, with a significantly reduced bunch before the final two laps, and a top 10 combining sprinters and punchers in unexpected order. I think some sprinters will definitely make it into that bunch. From that moment on, their will be no end to the Dutch attacks. If they're still there, South Africa's Moolman and Australia's Spratt will surely try to attack in the last lap, as will Longo Borghini.  My guess is that Annemiek van Vleuten will tag along with one of these attacks, and conquer the double rainbow with Rivera winning the bronze from the bunch seconds later.

1. Annemiek van Vleuten
2. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio
3. Coryn Rivera

Stars:
***** Annemiek van Vleuten, Coryn Rivera, Anna van der Breggen
**** Lizzie Deignan, Lotta Lepistö, Megan Guarnier
*** Amanda Spratt, Ashleigh Moolman, Marianne Vos, Amelie Dideriksen, Georgia Bronzini, Hannah Barnes
** Chloe Hosking, Katrin Garfoot, Jolien D'Hoore, Elisa Longo-Borgini, Gracy Elvin

In a few days time, the Boels Ladies Tour will launch in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The Boels Ladies Tour, also known as the Holland Ladies Tour, is the second-to-last event on the Women's World Tour calendar and the last stage race. It's also the longest stage race behind the Giro Rosa, so it's a prestigious event. As the startlist is released today, let's take the time to look at what we can expect from this race.

Content:
Stage 1 - Wageningen (Prologue)
Stage 2 - Eibergen -Arnhem (Medium hills, flat finish)
Stage 3 - Roosendaal (Individual Time Trial)
Stage 4 - Gennep - Weert (Flat)
Stage 5 - Stamproy - Vaals (Hills)
Stage 6 - Sittard-Sittard (Medium hills, flat finish)
Riders to watch
Favourites

Stage 1: Prologue in Wageningen / 4.3km / Tuesday 29th of August
The BLT starts with a short, fast 4.3km prologue. The first kilometre is a slight false-flat rise, but the rest of the short parcours is flat. There's two long straight stretches, with the last km being the most technical part of the parcours. The final 500m feature two sharp corners, in the narrow streets of Wageningen. The streets are not cobbled, but they're still made from bricks. Apart from the well known TT cannons, we might see outsiders like Anette Edmondson or Ann Sophie Duyk attempt to take this stage. I don't think the time differences will be enormous, but we could just see some favourites crash out.

Stage 2: Eibergen - Arnhem / 132.8km / Wednesday 30th of August

Stage 3 - Individual Time Trial Roosendaal / 18.1 km / Thursday 31st of August

Stage 4: Gennep - Weert / 121.4 km / Friday 1st of September

Stage 5: Stamproy - Vaals / 141.8 km / Saturday 2nd of September
I've been teasing you with AGR references, but here we are: smack in the middle of the bergs of Limburg. With a finish circuit in Vaals, this is the hilliest of all the stages, and this stage just screams GC ALERT. The race organisation counts 10 climbs, two of which they classified with KOM points. The KOM's in stage 2 were worth 3 points for the first to cross, the KOM's in stage 5 and 6 are considered heavier, so its conquerors are rewarded with 5 points. The race ends with two laps around Vaals and and Vijlen, taking the Groenenweg KOM twice. The last noted climb is at 10 km from the finish, but the climbing is not done yet, as a bump of 4.5% in the last 2.5 km to go is sure to break up the last of the favourites still together. Van Dijk will be trying to stay with the favourites here, but it will be Van der Breggen and Van Vleuten who will grapple here, with Deignan and Spratt acting as foils for their Dutch captains. Eliza Longo Borgini stands an outsiders chance here.

Stage 6: Sittard - Sittard / 159.7 km / Sunday 3rd of September
Although not with the same heights and gradients as the previous stage, the final stage of the Boels Ladies Tour is a bumpy one. It's also the longest stage of the week, potentially still allowing for those with the freshest legs to upset the classification. Officially, it's got six KOM's of the same classification as the last stage, making it potentially very lucrative to get into the break. The stage ends in the Tom Dumoulin Bike Park, with a rather flat final 9 km. This is rather similar to the 5th stage of the recent BinckBank Tour, where Lars Boom showed that a sprint wasn't inevitable, but there's one crucial difference: the artificially built cycling training parcours showcases different types of terrain, and the finish for this stage is built at a very short mur with a 10% gradient. The mur being only several meters long should nevertheless prove for an interesting uphill sprint.

Riders to Watch
Today, the startlist has been published, and even though it's still liable to changes, we can make some observations. The first is that the field is of enormous quality. There's top-level sprinters, climbers and classic's riders in this race. Cervelo Bigla of sprinter Lotta Lepistö is a notable absentee, and Coryn Rivera's Team Sunweb has other goals, so she is another top sprinter who we will have to miss.

Defending champion Chantal Blaak will be at the start again, but she will be teammates with the indomitable Anna van der Breggen and Lizzie Deignan, both of whom will take precedence in the team's pecking order. Last year, Blaak won mostly thanks to her team's outstanding team time trial. With no such TTT in this year's edition, I think there's little chance for Blaak to repeat her 2016 result. Her two captains however are among the favourites: Van der Breggen has had a stellar season, winning the Giro Rosa and topping the World Tour Ranking, while Deignan likewise performed outstandingly in the classics and today won the GP Plouay. Although Van der Breggen looks to be slightly over her season's peak, I still rank her as the main favourite between the two, because her time trial skills will give her an useful boost in a race with two ITT's. In addition, with Amelie Dideriksen the Boels-Dolmans team has got one of the favourites for the sprint stages and with Majerus and Pieters, both break-away pro's, it's hard to see this team not dominating their sponsor's home race.

Wiggle High5's Edmondson and Fahlin are both outsiders for the prologue, while Eliza Longo-Borghini will content the general classification. She peaked early in the season, taking the Strade Bianchi, and it's questionable whether she will be able to built a second peak for this race, especially considering the course might not be selective enough for her to really shine.

One rider hoping to exploit the two time trials to the fullest will be Ellen van Dijk. This diesel engine is a real powerhouse in herself, and with a second place last year, she's one of the favourites for this year. The Team Sunweb rider will try to combine time trial skills with late attacks to built her GC position. Canyon Sram is a team bulking with sprinters, such as the formidable Hannah Barnes and Elena Ceccini, but it's Lisa Brennauer who can combine respectable placings in mass sprints with time trial prowess, which helped her secure the overall on the LOTTO Thuringen Ladies Tour last July. Although Drops cycling does not start this race, Ann Sophie Duyk starts with the Belgian National Selection, and is another outsider for the time trials.

If there's one team to challenge Boels' dominance, it's Orica-SCOTT. They won't be controlling the peloton like Boels, but they will play a high level tactical game trying to create chaos with their two captains, Amanda Spratt and Annemiek van Vleuten. The two came in 5th and 3rd respectively in the Giro Rosa, and should be able to repeat a similar high classification for both of them. Afterwards, Van Vleuten completely dominated the La Course by le TdF. First, she blasted up the gruelling Izoard mountain stage before consolidating her win in a chase-style TT-effort. Although she hasn't raced since this event, Annemiek van Vleuten has a killer time trial, as she sports the Dutch tricolore.

Lastly, a super talent who hasn't shown her fullest this season is Katarzyna Niewiadoma. The Polish rider will leave Marianne Vos' WM3 team at the end of this season, and could definitely prove herself once more before starting at her new team. Linda Villumsen, the New Zealand rider from Danish descent, is a former time trial world champion, but has had a very rough year, riding only 17 race days and excelling in none. Will this be the race she returns to form?

The Favourites:
Sprinters:
*** Chloe Hoskins
** Amelie Dideriksen, Hannah Barnes
* Kirsten Wild, Elena Ceccini, Gracy Elvin

Time trial:
*** Ellen van Dijk, Lisa Brennauer
** Annemiek van Vleuten
*Annette Edmonson, Emilia Fahlin, Ann Sophie Duyk, Linda Villumsen

Overal classification:
***Anna Van der Breggen, Annemiek van Vleuten
** Ellen van Dijk, Lizzie Deignan, Lisa Brennauer
*Katarzina Niewiadoma, Amanda Spratt, Eliza Longo Borgini


Maps and profiles courtesy of the Boels Ladies Tour technical guide. Images courtesy of Gettys Images (Amstel Gold Race Ladies) and team Sunweb (Ronde van Drenthe)