Favorites time trial stage 2 Tour of Holland 2025 | Power riders take center stage across the Dutch countryside!

We will start and finish on Thursday in Etten-Leur, a town with a population of just under 50,000. After a short section in the center, the riders will head south towards the countryside. It is in the middle of this green landscape that most of this time trial will take place.

It will mainly be a matter of pedaling hard, as there are quite a few long straights in the course. However, the Dutch countryside also has quite a few sharp bends, which the riders will encounter halfway through. The loop continues north, back to Etten-Leur, where the riders will cover the final kilometers.

The final kilometers feature a few turns, with the most notable being the tricky one about 2.7 kilometers from the finish line. We first turn right, then make a 180-degree turn. From there, it's full throttle to the finish line in the center of Etten-Leur, although there is another sharp right turn with just under a kilometer to go.

Times
Start: 1:30 PM local time (first rider) (07:30 AM EDT)
Finish: around 3:58 PM local time (last rider) (09:58 AM EDT)

The riders will again have little to complain about on Thursday. It will remain dry, and although the Netherlands is often very windy, we can expect a light breeze from the north on Thursday afternoon. This means that the riders will have the wind against them in the second part, while the temperature will be pretty pleasant at around 15 degrees Celsius.

Time trial specialists: report for duty! We definitely include Ethan Hayter, the winner of the prologue on behalf of Soudal Quick-Step. Afterward, the Brit even said that Thursday's time trial should suit him better than the prologue. That is very promising for Hayter, who, with Yves Lampaert as his teammate, has another outsider for the podium with him.

The Dutch will want to strike in their own country, and this looks like a great time trial for Daan Hoole. The Lidl-Trek speedster caught his biggest fish to date in this year's Giro d'Italia time trial and is therefore one of the favorites on Thursday. Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty), Nils Eekhoff (Picnic PostNL), and Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) should also be able to perform well on this terrain.

For the stage victory, watch out for Belgian Alec Segaert (Lotto), world time trial champion in the U23 category Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek), and the fast Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck). The latter looked set to become the Danish time trial champion last year, but after a long saga that lasted a year (!), he was stripped of the title.

Anyone else? Certainly! Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tim Torn Teutenberg, Cameron Rogers (both Lidl-Trek), Vincent Van Hemelen (Flanders-Baloise), Lukas Kubis (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)... These are all men who should be capable of setting a good time.

Top favorites: Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) and Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek)
Outsiders: Alec Segaert (Lotto), Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) and Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Long shots: Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step), Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty), Nils Eekhoff (Picnic PostNL), Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Cameron Rogers (Lidl-Trek), Lukas Kubis (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)