Stage 3: Breda – Breda
Date: Sunday, August 21, 2022
Distance: 193.5km
Stage timing: 12:25-17:15 CEST
Stage type: Flat
It’s another day for the sprinters on the circuitous loop around Bedra with 193.5 kilometres of kermesse-style racing, twisting and turning through villages and dodging traffic furniture on an almost entirely flat route.
The race makes a bizarre entry into Belgian territory in Baarle-Hertog, the kooky municipality that mixes Dutch territory and Belgian enclaves. An artefact of the first World War, the international line is so jumbled that it runs through some buildings, including the town hall where a meeting room is partly delineated by a bright strip denoting the Dutch-Belgian border.
To add to the humour of the stage, there’s a classified climb, the category 4 Rijzendeweg. The climb is 500 metres long, climbs only 16 metres and maxes out at 5% – barely a motorway overpass – but will be hotly contested for the slim pickings for the mountains jersey before the transfer to Spain.
This tiny pimple on the landscape will hardly bother the sprinters, who need only remain upright to fight for the stage win back in Breda.
