Ladies Thalita de Jong looks ahead to the Baloise Ladies Tour: "Excited for this five-day race close to home."

The Baloise Ladies Tour starts with a 2.7-kilometer prologue in Hulst in the Netherlands, and de Jong is looking forward to it: "I’m excited about it; a prologue used to be my thing," she says. "I haven’t raced in a while, so this one will be tough (laughs). The Baloise Ladies Tour is the perfect benchmark. The Tour de France Femmes is less than a month away. How is my fitness level? How are the others doing? How are we performing as a team? Moreover, it's a good opportunity to get the feel of the time trial bike again. Admittedly, the course this week is completely different than the Tour. Baloise Belgium is as flat as a pancake; the chaos of the Tour won’t be seen here, but it’s an excellent test."

Thalita de Jong is also happy to showcase herself in a five-day stage race with six stages close to home. "There’s a strong field at the start as well. I wish the course had one more challenging stage. There are many top sprinters, which will make it difficult for me to show myself. They will go all out for the sprints. We’ll have to make the race exciting with an attack. It’s also a matter of seeing how I stand after the prologue. If it goes well, then anything is possible. I expect it to be fun racing this week."

Picture: Brecht Steenhouwer