Baloise Belgium Tour: Filippo Ganna set for path less travelled to Tour de France

After a prolonged break following Paris-Roubaix, Filippo Ganna returns to racing at the Baloise Belgium Tour on Wednesday.

Interest will be high in whether the Italian time trial champion can put in a serious GC bid in potentially very favourable terrain - and simultaneously perhaps show rising form for the fast-approaching Tour de France.

Ganna has been training in Teide and near his home in Piemonte and is looking to complete his 'set' of Grand Tour stage wins with a time trial victory this July. But first comes an opportunity to test his form in Belgium.

Overall victory in last year's Baloise Belgium Tour was taken by the winner of the opening time trial, Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility). As a former double World Champion in that specialty, on paper, Ganna could have a good chance to impact the GC on this year's short, flat stage 3 race against the clock on Friday.

Overall, it's a very similar course to last year, with the biggest challenges coming on Saturday's rolling stage through the hills of Wallonia and culminating, just like in 2024, with multiple ascents of the short but punchy Mur de Durbuy.

Apart from Ganna, other potential challengers to succeed past winners like Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) this year include Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) and Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep).

While Nys has already taken another big step up this season with wins in events like the GP Miguel Indurain and a fifth place in his debut at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Hayter has two national time trial titles to his credit. Like the Belgian, too, Hayter is also very much at home on the ultra-rugged terrain on stage 4 that could decide the race overall.

However, the five-stage Baloise Belgium Tour is also one that favours the fastmen, with three days of the five earmarked as potential bunch sprints. With time bonuses on offer at the finishes as well as in the mid-stage "golden kilometre", sprinters like Jasper Philipsen, fourth overall last year, with a talent for getting over some tough mid-level climbs, could well be in the mix for the GC again.

Like Ganna, Philipsen will be building for the Tour de France, and his three stage wins in Belgium to date, along with his career-best top five finish last year, are testament to how well he can shine on home soil. Stage 3's race against the clock, too, takes place in Philipsen's hometown of Tessenderlo-Ham, so it will likely provide extra motivation.

Philipsen will face a very deep field of rivals in the bunch sprints, though, spearheaded by Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), also en route to the Tour de France and with two stage wins to date in Belgium. Merlier has also shown great recent form with wins two weekends ago in the one-day Brussels Cycling Classic and a third place in the Antwerp Epic.

Other top sprint names due to be on Wednesday's stage 1 startline in Merelbeke-Melle include Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Casper van Uden (Picnic-PostNL) - recently a stage winner in the Giro and veteran sprint stars Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility).

Recently left out of his team selection in the Tour de France in his final season, Kristoff is still on the hunt for the 100th win of his career - and with three sprint stages, all of them of the technical variety that suits the Norwegian, the Baloise Belgium Tour could be where he finally captures it.

Interest will be high, in any case, on how Ganna, Merlier and Philipsen - three figures expected to play leading roles in the Tour de France - fare in one of their last stage races prior to the much bigger challenges facing them in July.