Twenty one years after the last edition of the Tour of Holland was held, the newly-revived 2.1-ranked race is set to return to the UCI racing calendar this Tuesday evening, with a short, punchy prologue in the Hague kicking off the six-day event.
Adding another final stage racing option for teams alongside the ongoing Tour of Guangxi, this year's NIBC Tour of Holland – to give the race its new full name – boasts a strong field of sprinters including Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), Arnaud de Lie (Lotto) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick Step).
But far from sticking to the Netherlands' flat roads, only one stage, on Wednesday, is likely to end in a bunch sprint. Instead, the overall route will likely favour an all-rounder, thanks to Thursday's 15-kilometre time trial, a hilly trek through the Limburg region of southern Holland – the same area where Amstel Gold is held – on Friday and no less than 13 ascents of the Vamberg climb in the northern side of the country on Saturday.
The last day of the 600-kilometre event on Sunday, October 19 also has some major final technical challenges. A gravel sector, featuring on multiple loops round the town of Arnhem, will test the GC contenders all the way through to the finish – and the end of the stage racing year in Europe, too.
Initially held in 1948, before this year, the Tour of Holland last took place in 2004, with the victory going to former Netherlands rider Erik Dekker. One strong historical link for the newly revived race with its own past is that Roxane Knetemann – whose father Gerrie, a former World Champion and one of the top racers of the 1970s, who holds the current record of four overall victories – is its director.
"Of course, I know quite a few races my father won, but I had no idea he also held the record for the Tour of Holland," Roxane Knetemann told Nieuwsblad. "It's a great honour that I've now been asked to become director."
The 2025 race will specialize in having short punchy stages, with multiple circuits, Knetemann said, ensuring spectators can see the race several times. There will also be a Red Bull 'golden kilometre' with bonus seconds, while the leader's jersey, as could be expected for the Tour of Holland, will be orange.
While the race is ultimately aiming for WorldTour status, one curious feature of only this year's edition is there will be no policemen on the circuit. This is due to police being needed for extra security requirements for the NATO summit in the Netherlands, something which has affected multiple bike races in the country. Instead, the race will be closed off entirely with volunteers, with Wednesday's first road stage needing 500 traffic junctions to be shut down.
"Fortunately, we have a lot of volunteer security guards," Knetemann told Nieuwsblad. "But it remains a huge challenge."
