World champion Tom Boonen (Quick.Step) will be the top favourite for today's Veenendaal-Veenendaal, a 210 km race between Utrecht and Arnhem in the Netherlands, ranked as 1.HC on the European continental tour. Boonen is using it for some extra racing kilometres before he starts in the Tour de Suisse, but the team isn't placing any pressure on him to win.
Boonen's main rivals in a bunch sprint include Simone Cadamuro (Milram), Max van Heeswijk (Discovery), Niko Eeckhout (Chocolade Jacques), Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Baden Cooke and Jeremy Hunt (Unibet.com). But Quick.Step also has Steven de Jongh as an alternative sprinter, depending on how things evolve in the race.
