The 2015 Eneco Tour was a road cycling stage race that took place in the Netherlands and Belgium between 10 and 16 August 2015. It was the 11th edition of the Eneco Tour stage race and was the twenty-first race of the 2015 UCI World Tour.
The Eneco Tour is an unusual race in the cycling season: it primarily favours classics riders rather than climbers. The first three stages of the race were suitable for sprinters; the fourth stage was an individual time trial; and the final three stages were suitable for the classics riders. Elia Viviani () won the first stage and was the first rider to wear the leader's jersey. Jesper Asselman () took over the lead after the second stage due to time bonuses, before losing it in the time trial to Jos van Emden (). Wilco Kelderman (also ) took the lead after the fifth stage, but lost it to Tim Wellens () the following day. Wellens defended his lead on the final stage to win his second successive Eneco Tour; he had been the defending champion after victory in 2014. Greg Van Avermaet () was second, with Kelderman third.
The points classification was won by André Greipel () and the combativity award by Gijs Van Hoecke (). also won the team classification.
Teams
The 17 UCI World Tour teams were automatically entitled and obliged to start the race; three UCI Professional Continental teams were invited as wildcards to form a twenty-team peloton. Each team entered eight riders to form a 160-rider peloton; one rider, 's Daniel Oss, withdrew before the race due to a fall in training, so 159 riders started the race.
Schedule
The first three stages of the race were flat road stages, with no classified climbs. All of these stages were expected to suit the sprinters, though crosswinds had the potential to make the stages more difficult. The decisive section of the race was expect to start with the individual time trial on stage 4. The final three stages of the race were expected to suit classics riders: the fifth and sixth stages were hilly stages in the style of the Ardennes classics, while the final stage used roads that feature in the cobbled classics. One change to the regulations in 2015 was the introduction of a "golden kilometre", a series of three intermediate sprints on each road stage approximately before the finish. The first three riders across each of these sprint points won bonus seconds in the general classification. This replicated the system from the 2015 Tour of Belgium, where the golden kilometre system had played a part in the victory of Greg Van Avermaet ().
Pre-race favourites
Most World Tour stage races are won by strong climbers. The Eneco Tour is unusual because the favourites for overall victory were classics riders—those who perform strongly in the Ardennes classics and the cobbled classics that feature in the early part of the cycling season.
The defending champion was Tim Wellens (), who won the 2014 Eneco Tour in the penultimate stage. He was one of the favourites again, although Cycling Weekly predicted that he would be given less freedom to attack as the defending champion. One other former winner of the race took part in 2015: Lars Boom () had won in 2012. He was another strong favourite in 2015, especially as the race included a longer time trial than other recent editions of the race. Other favourites included Niki Terpstra (), who was third in 2012, Greg Van Avermaet (), who was in strong form after coming close to victory in the Clásica de San Sebastián, Philippe Gilbert (also BMC) and Wilco Kelderman ().
The first three stages of the race were flat and therefore particularly suitable for sprinters. Prominent sprinters taking part in the race included André Greipel (), Giacomo Nizzolo (), Elia Viviani (), Andrea Guardini () and Edward Theuns ().
Stages
Stage 1
10 August 2015 – Bolsward to Bolsward,
The first stage was a flat stage in the Netherlands, starting and finishing in Bolsward. The race began with a large loop south of the town, through Sneek and then north along the coast from Oudemirdum, then returning to Bolsward. After the first time across the finish line, the race turned north for a shorter loop, through Franeker and then south along the coast from Harlingen, before returning to Bolsward for the second time across the finish line. There were then two laps of a finishing circuit. The stage contained no climbs.