The Eneco Tour 2026 runs from Tuesday, October 13, to Sunday, October 18, in the Netherlands. Christophe Laporte defends the title he won a year ago, when the race was called the Tour of Holland, and he won it without taking a stage. Ethan Hayter, who won both time trials that week and lost the lead on the VAM-berg, is on the provisional start list as well.
How Christophe Laporte won in 2025 without a stage win
Laporte was fourth in last year’s prologue, three seconds behind Hayter, and third in the time trial at 15 seconds. The stage through Limburg was stopped after 30 kilometers, when cars drove onto the course. That left the VAM-berg, where Timo de Jong won the stage and Laporte finished second in the same time and took the lead. He won the race by 37 seconds from Lukáš Kubiš, with Jakob Söderqvist third at 1:05. “It’s great to end the season with a victory,” he said afterwards, as quoted by Escape Collective.
Fifteen teams of six riders start, seven of them WorldTeams. Laporte has number 1 on the provisional start list published by WielerFlits, in a Visma-Lease a Bike team with Edoardo Affini and Victor Campenaerts. This year he was fifth in Paris-Roubaix and has one win. He did not race between April 19 and July 29 and left the Vuelta on stage 14. He rides Paris-Tours on Sunday, two days before the prologue.
Ethan Hayter and 16.7 kilometers against the clock
Hayter won last year’s prologue in 4:26 and the time trial in 16:56, and led the race until the VAM-berg. This year the prologue in The Hague is 3.1 kilometers and the time trial in Tilburg on Thursday 13.6, which makes 16.7 kilometers against the clock. Hayter, of Soudal Quick-Step, was second in the 9-kilometer time trial that opened the Vuelta.
Söderqvist was second in last year’s time trial, three seconds behind Hayter. He is the Swedish time trial champion, finished fifth in the time trial at the world championships and was eighth in the European championship time trial on October 7. Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe finished second overall in the Tour de Pologne this year and second in its closing 12-kilometer time trial.
VAM-berg: where the 2025 race changed hands
Saturday’s stage 4 goes from Hoogeveen to the top of the VAM-berg in Drenthe: 149.8 kilometers, with cobbled sectors on the way and four laps of a circuit over the hill. Kubiš was third there last year. He rides for Unibet Rose Rockets, is the Slovak champion on the road and in the time trial, and finished second in the Tour of Denmark this season. De Jong, the winner on the hill last year, is not on the start list.
The day before, the race goes back to Limburg, from the Tom Dumoulin Bike Park in Sittard to Watersley over 110.5 kilometers. The circuit there is new, just over 20 kilometers long and less hard than last year’s on purpose, and police motorcycles escort that stage and the ones in Ede and Arnhem. In four of the five road stages a bonus sprint, the Red Bull Kilometer, gives six, four and two seconds to the first three riders.
Merlier, Van Poppel and the sprint stages in Ede and Arnhem
Tim Merlier won the first road stage last year and has 12 wins this season. Danny van Poppel won the last stage and the points classification. Both are on the list, Merlier beside Hayter at Soudal Quick-Step and Van Poppel with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Wednesday’s stage 1 is three laps through the Veluwe from Ede, 120 kilometers on wide roads, and the organizers expect a sprint. Sunday’s stage in Arnhem is 149.2 kilometers and ends with four laps of a short circuit.
Women and men start in turn in The Hague
The prologue on Tuesday runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Sportcampus Zuiderpark, and the riders of the Eneco Tour Women take part in it. A man starts, then a woman, and so on, and the start ramp and the hot seat have moved indoors after last year’s cold. “The UCI still needs a little time to get used to ideas like this,” Thijs Rondhuis of the organization told WielerFlits, in a quote translated from Dutch by WatchCycling.
The Eneco Tour is the heir of the Ronde van Nederland, which Erik Dekker won when it was last held in 2004. Gerrie Knetemann won it four times, more than anyone. His daughter Roxane Knetemann is the race director of the Eneco Tour. Where to watch the race in your country is on our watch page.