The first Belgian and Dutch riders named for the BinckBank Tour

Some big names in Belgium and the Netherlands have confirmed their participation in the BinckBank Tour 2018

On Monday the 13th of August Tim Wellens, Jens Debusschere, Jasper Stuyven, Boy Van Poppel, Lars Boom, Dylan Groenewegen and Niki Terpstra will appear in Heerenveen at the start of the only UCI WorldTour stage race in the Low Lands. Zdenek Stybar, half-blood Belgian, will be there as well.

Tim Wellens knew his big breakthrough as a professional cyclist in 2014 when he won a stage and the general classification in the BinckBank Tour. In 2015 a won a stage and the GC as well. Last year Lotto Soudal's big man won another stage and finished second in the overall race. In 2018 he won the Brabantse Pijl and a stage in the Giro and now he is one of the top favourites to win the BinckBank Tour for the third time in his career. Teammate Jens Debusschere will work for Wellens, but Belgium's national champion of 2014 may also have the ambition to win a stage for himself.

Quick-Step Floors won the GC of the BinckBank Tour in 2013 with Zdenek Stybar and in 2016 with Niki Terpstra. Stybar lives in Essen (Belgium) and is three time cyclocross world champion. In the past he was also the fastest in three BinckBank stages. Terpstra is now competing in the Tour de France and won the Tour of Flanders this year after an impressive solo. The final stage of the BinckBank Tour (Sunday 19 August), with passages over the Muur van Geraardsbergen and finish on the ramparts of Geraardsbergen, seems to be made for him. Last year the stage victory in Geraardsbergen was for Jasper Stuyven. He finished third in the GC, but this year the Trek-cyclist will contend again, along with teammate Boy Van Poppel.

The fourth former GC winner of the BinckBank Tour that confirmed for this year's edition is Lars Boom. The speed devil from Vlijmen won in 2012 and last year he finished first in Sittard-Geleen, the finish location of the penultimate stage of the BinckBank Tour 2018. With Lars Boom and Dylan Groenewegen, LottoNL-Jumbo will have one of the strongest teams in the race. The man from Amsterdam sprinted to two stage victories in the Tour de France. Two years ago Groenewegen won the opening stage of the BinckBank Tour in Bolsward, exactly the same finish location as the opening stage of this year's edition.

Tom Dumoulin is the defending champion, winning last year's Bink Bank Tour (2017)