Giant-Alpecin have announced the line-up for the Baloise Belgium Tour.

The 86th edition of the Baloise Belgium Tour starts this Wednesday with a course providing opportunities for every type of rider to shine. The five-stage race gets underway with a prologue of 6km in Bornem, followed by the traditional sprint stage from Buggenhout to Knokke-Heist on Thursday. On Friday, the riders head into the Flemish Ardennes featuring three hills on the course: the Valkenberg, the Leberg, and the Berendries, as well as the cobblestone sections of the Paddestraat and Lippenhovestraat to tackle in the last 10km. The queen stage on Saturday will be decisive for the overall victory with the day’s course including the climb of the Côte de la Redoute. On the last day, the peloton rides to Tongeren and will finish with a local lap to be completed three times with some steep hills.

The Baloise Belgium Tour will be the first race for Max Walscheid since the training accident earlier this year and the team is delighted to see him racing again.  

Coach Arthur van Dongen said: "The overall objective is to go for stage results instead of having general classification ambitions in Belgium. For the fast finishes we will prepare the sprint for Zico. On the hillier stages, we have Simon who is able to compete on the tougher sections of the course."

LINE-UP
Johannes Fröhlinger (GER)
Simon Geschke (GER)
Lars van der Haar (NED)
Fredrik Ludvigsson (SWE)
Sam Oomen (NED)
Zico Waeytens (BEL)
Max Walscheid (GER)