Route van de Deltawerken   

Not only tulips and cheese are some typical Dutch stuff, they have something much bigger to offer: The great Deltawerken. After the 1953 North Sea Flood, during which big parts of southwestern Holland flooded, the government decided that something had to be done to protect the country from another flood like this. The Delta Works are the result and are the scene for an epic battle over many dams and dikes.

The race st...

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Not only tulips and cheese are some typical Dutch stuff, they have something much bigger to offer: The great Deltawerken. After the 1953 North Sea Flood, during which big parts of southwestern Holland flooded, the government decided that something had to be done to protect the country from another flood like this. The Delta Works are the result and are the scene for an epic battle over many dams and dikes.

The race starts in Goes, a nice, small village in the province of Zeeland, one of those provinces which in former times mainly consisted of water, but have been drained by building many dikes. After only 15 kilometers, the first of the seven Delta Works today will be passed, the Zeelandbrug. This four-kilometer-long bridge passes the Oosterschelde, one of the National Parks the country has, due to its rich underwater fauna. Only 20 kilometers later, after having crossed the island Schouwen-Duiveland, the combination of the Grevelingendam and the Philipsdam is the next Delta Work. This combination takes more than 11 kilometers, and the fact that all of these dams are as open as they could be, the wind could play a huge factor here.

Zeeland will be left after having passed the Philipsdam, moving into Noord-Brabant for twenty kilometers. The Volkerakdam, 4 kilometers long and crossing the Haringvliet (another National Park), will be the fourth big dam of the day, leading the peloton into Zuid-Holland, the third province of the day. Going from Numansdorp to Hellevoetsluis, many fields will be crossed which were totally flooded during the Flood of 1953, causing 1853 deaths in The Netherlands alone and leaving more than a hundred thousand people homeless.

The last forty kilometers are known from stage 2 of the Tour de France of 2015. Severe weather conditions with many showers and a strong wind caused the peloton to break up in many pieces. In succession, the Haringvlietdam (3.5 km), the Brouwersdam (5.5 km) and a big part of the Oosterscheldekering (7 km), on which the finish is located, will make sure that only the strongest riders will survive for this fabulous race, which is all in honour of all those that did not survive the Flood of 1953.