On Your Toes! THREE Races This Week: Tour Poitou – Charentes, Lidl Deutschland Tour & Druivenkoers – Overijse

Race #1 The Tour Poitou – Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine, a chip little 2.1 number of four stages, third stage is a flat 29km TT with the road stages being filled with short sharp shocking little walls. The four French WT teams are joined by nine big PRT teams so it should be competitive. Think mostly young sprinters like Penhoet, Warenskjold, Lonardi, Fretin, Tesson, and old guy Demare with a leveling of kids who can climb a bit and will fight for the GC: Costiou, Holter, Dversnes etc. Difficult finale is Friday. Enjoy.

Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images

Race#2 is the Lidl Deutschland Tour taking place this time in the Saarland from Wednesday-Sunday starting with a prologue, 2.9km long, and four bumpy road stages. Sprinters and punchers like Mads, Kristoff, Milan, Skujins, Viviani, Lamperti, Poels, Buitrago, D Van Poppel, Aular, Alveiro Cepeda, Hayter, etc etc.

With those names and even tough it is a .Pro race, in FSA-0DS land it is a cat 5 stage race with 12-count ‘em-TWELVE WT teams and five PRT teams. Have you noticed the lack of puncher types in the Vuelta? Look here for them. Just a real nice startlist opposite a Grand Tour. You’re welcome.

Winner? Let’s say Jonathan Milan.

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

Race #3 Druivenkoers-Overijse. This one-day little Belgian number on Friday is a FSA-=DS cat 5 race with the minimum four WT teams, eight PRT teams, and some number of Conti teams that managest to climb the bumpy Smeysberg six? times (I lost count) plus a few other leg-sapping climbs just made for puncheurs. And yes we have a Maxim Van Gils sighting for this race. can he rouse himself from his summer doldrums and take the win? Can he beat Axel Zingle or Tom Van Asbroeck? Lucca Mozzato? Gianni Vanmeersch? Nah. I’m going with his teammate Milan Menten.

Photo by MAARTEN STRAETEMANS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images