Baloise Belgium Tour 2023 Betting Favourites
Country: Belgium
Level: Pro
Total Stages: 5
Mountain stages: 0
Time Trials: 1
It's Belgium. What can you say. It's pretty flat with a couple of hilly courses at the tail end. Evenepoel won in 2019 and 2021, and Mauro Schmid in 2022. Let's dig in.
Key Players
We've got a number of big names here: MVDP, Philipsen, Kristoff, Ewan - and more. Given the landscape and terrain, it's gonna sway to more bunch sprints and those with the ability to create breaks through seated power. Hence, some strong rouleurs are showing up.
Strongest Teams
The Belgian teams are out in full force with Soudal - Quick Step and Alpecin - Deceuninck bringing their A-squad. Trek - Segafredo also has some strong contenders with the likes of Thibau Nys, who just won the Tour of Norway, and Toms Skuyjins (albeit Skuyjins is probably on domestique duties).
Value Picks
The odds haven't dropped yet, but it's going to be tougher to find value here compared to say the Tour of Slovenia.
Pro Cycling Bets
The top slots will be taken by either MVDP who looked strong at Dwars door het Hageland, or by the myriad of sprinters that the strong teams are brining. Given the terrain you're looking for a rouleur who isn't well know who can form a break one day that Mathiew van der Poel won't be in or somehow misses and isn't able to bridge too.
And that's well. Not a whole lot of riders.
But let's check the debutants list. The names that stick out are Gleb Syritsa from Astana, Hugo Page from Intermarché and Marco Frigo from IPT.
Page finished 2nd at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race earlier in the year, along with 3rd on a stage during the Tour Down Under.
Frigo was in the break a few times during the Giro 2023, and secured a 3rd, 5th and 6th through the grand tour.
Finally, Syritsa, who carries enough heft to form those breaks on the flat has a strong sprint and took a stage at Le Tour de Langkawi late last year and performed well early in the year at Vuelta a San Juan.
Syritsa and Page should both be given long odds given the length since they've had their strongest performances - which is good for us.
Stages
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3 (ITT)
Stage 4
Stage 5
