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)

Lance Armstrong doped, lied and intimidated journalists and fellow cyclists. USADA claimed he was he ringleader of the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen. There has been evidence from his earliest to his latest Tour victories of doping, but during his confession on national television and in court, he refused to admit when and how long he used doping. When he finally was convicted, he posted the notorious photo of himself, surrounded by yellow jerseys. Every time I talk to cycling fans in the Netherlands, they tell me how they loved this show of attitude.

Alejandro Valverde doped. He was suspended for two years from cycling because of doping somewhere before 2006, in the Fuentes scandal. Apart from a two year suspension, he was also banned from the Tour the year before over the same allegations. Since then, every single news article in Dutch media regarding Valverde mentions doping.

Michael Boogerd doped. The accusations had been there for a long time, but he'd always denied. When he thought any possible charges had expired, he organised a similar confession-interview as Armstrong's, gathering a million viewers. He never admitted exactly when he used doping. He refused to cooperate to catch other dopers. Shortly after his confession, he became cycling commentator on the Dutch Eurosport, which had previously sacked riders with a doping background.

Michele Scarponi worked with doctor Ferrari. There is no proof he ever doped; no positive tests. He died earlier this year, in a car accident that shocked the world. Dutch public broadcaster published the headline: "Dubious character dies in accident".

Thomas Dekker doped. He was caught with positive samples, initially denied, but ultimately was suspended. In 2016 he published an autobiography together with journalist Thijs Zonneveld. In it, he revealed much of his doping past. He named other athletes like Boogerd who had already been outed, but kept Rabobank-management out of shot. Passages in the book published as previews and given ample attention in national media were about "the lifestyle": how doping went hand-in-hand with hookers, alcohol, fast cars and extravagant parties. Dekker, like Boogerd and Armstong, was a bad boy.

Alberto Contador possibly doped. Probably not. He was suspended for two years for a test containing impossibly low amounts of an illegal substance, which he probably consumed through contaminated meat. Zero, zero, zero, etc. This week he announced his retirement. Thijs Zonneveld, who ghost-wrote Thomas Dekker's sensationalist book, tweeted he never liked Contador, because he was a "proven druggie".

Dutch impromptu musical group Sint Willibrord Sessions launch "Lance Armstrong: the Rock Opera". They start with proclaiming: "We're not saying what he did wasn't wrong, but...", and the rest of the opera is one long ode to the 'but', doting on Armstrong's bad-boy-image while giving Betsy Andreu and Emma O'Reilly a thouroughly sexist treatment. The opera was a success.

Luca Paolini will always be remembered for his coke addiction. Tom Boonen for his cycling prowess. Lance Armstrong's ban caused him to lose his podcast's connection with an American pro-race. The internet is in an uproar. Ullrich isn't welcome at the Tour de France start. Uproar. Marco Pantani is honoured during this year's Giro? Proof that the Italians still worship doping, if you ask any Dutch journalist.
Neither Nibali nor Tom Dumoulin were ever caught with doping. I don't think any of them dopes. When Nibali won the Giro, he was called an untrustworthy doper. When Tom Dumoulin won the Giro this year, it was "proof of a cleaner cycling".

Are you seeing a pattern? It's well known that the Dutch love the Bad Boy stereotype. Maffiaboss Holleder became a national hero for a short while, including columns and regular appearances in talkshows. The same treatment wasn't reserved for kick-boxer Badr Hari, who used his fighting skills outside of the ring a bit too much. Holleder is as white as cream. Badr Hari is Morrocan. Have you caught the pattern now?

I don't know if this pattern emerges in other media as well, but it's unmistakable over here. The Dutch don't mind doping. Not really. As long as your skin is as white as cream, you can get away with everything. Heck, if you're that white, cheating only improves your image. But if you look slightly mediteranean? You're guilty by default, and you won't be forgiven. Not even on the day you die.