Yesterday's queen stage of the Eneco Tour produced some massive time differences and turned the GC on its head but nothing will be decided until the very end. Like last year, the race finishes with a mini Tour of Flanders which includes three passages of the famous Muur van Geraardsbergen and an uphill finish on the steep slopes, and the many climbs will make it extremely difficult for race leader Tom Dumoulin to control the stage. The young Dutchman can expect to come under fierce attack from his many rivals as he strives to take the biggest win of his career. Starting at 14.15 CEST you can follow all the drama on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

The course

Despite the difficult nature of the penultimate stage, nothing will be decided until the final day which sends the riders into the Flemish Ardennes for a very difficult day in the saddle. When it was announced that the Muur van Geraardsbergen would no longer be part of the Tour of Flanders course, the organizers of the Eneco Tour were quick to make an agreement with the city of Geraardsbergen which ensures that the stage race will finish with a tough circuit around that city until 2014. That stage debuted last year and gave way for some aggressive racing that allowed Alessandro Ballan to beat Lars Boom in the finish and produced a major shake-up of the GC with Boom disposing previous leader Svein Tuft from his position.

The riders will start in Tienen and head west on almost completely flat roads towards the Flemish Ardennes and its many hellingen known from the Tour of Flanders. The first of those is the Muur itself (1,1km, 8,7%) and the finish line is located 500m up the climb. From there, the riders complete one lap on a big 64,5km circuit that contains the famous Bosberg (1,0km, 5,8%, partly cobbled) in the early part with bonus seconds being offered on the top. From there flat roads lead to the difficult final part which sends the riders up the uncategorized Hurdumont (0,55km, 8%), the La Houppe (1,9km, 2,8%), the Tenbosse (0,4km, 6,9%) - which has bonus seconds on its top - the Eikenmolen (0,6km, 5,9%) and the Denderoordberg (0,7km, 8%, cobbled) before another passage of the finish line halfway of the Muur.

From there, the riders will head onto a shorter 25,6km circuit that has very few metres of flat roads. First up is another passage of the Bosberg with 21,3km to go - once again there will be bonus seconds on the top - and then it's onto the Onkerzelestraat (1,5km, 3%) with 12,7km to go. Those two climbs precede the difficult finale with the Denderoordberg starting at the 6,1km mark to go mark and a fast downhill run towards the bottom of the Muur and the final climb up to the finish (0,5m, 7,6%). The finale is also extremely technical with numerous turns inside the final 3km and that will all make for a very exciting end to what should be toughest ever edition of the Eneco Tour.

The weather

The final stage has been dubbed a mini Tour of Flanders and so it is only fitting that rainy conditions and bad weather will replace the summer conditions of the recent two days. Light rain should fall all day while the riders will only get the chance to see the sun intermittently in between the showers. While it won't be as hot as it has been in recent days, the thermometers will still show 21 degrees when the temperatures are set to peak towards the end of the stage.

It won't be an extremely windy day but the riders will have to battle a slightly stronger wind that they have done so far. As it has a southwestern direction, the peloton will face a cross-headwind as they head from Tienen towards the two circuits around Geraardsbergen. On the first of those, they will have a headwind on the first part and a tailwind when they head back towards the finish while the conditions will be reversed on the smaller final circuit. However, the wind will mostly be in the riders back during the final 5km with a definite tailwind for the final kilometre.

The favourites

Tom Dumoulin produced an outstanding ride yesterday to single-handedly keep the Sylvain Chavanel group at bay during the final kilometres and he still had enough in reserve to sprint up La Redoute for the final time to limit his losses to Zdenek Stybar to just 7 seconds (including bonus seconds). With Omega Pharma-Quick Step as his biggest rivals for the final stage, the Dutchman could, however, not have wished a worse stage for his jersey defence as the course for the final one plays into the strengths of the mighty Belgian super team. Being a strong climber, Dumoulin would undoubtedly have preferred another tough Ardennes stage instead of a stage in a terrain in which he has very little experience at the highest level.

The stage shapes up as the most unpredictable yet with no clear favourite and is likely to be decided by a late move on one of the climbs on the final circuit. The race is set to be extremely aggressive on those final circuits as the GC contenders will throw all they have against Dumoulin in a last attempt to unseat the race leader.

While everybody has recognized the strength of Dumoulin himself, many have been quick to point out his main weakness: his team. Being formidable to lead out a sprinter, the team may lack the strength to control such a hard stage against some of the best riders for this kind of racing and Dumoulin could find himself isolated earlier than he would have wanted. John Degenkolb may be one of the best rider for the Flemish classics but the German may have spent a little too much time on his recent wedding, the classics specialist clearly not being at his best for this race. Koen De Kort is another rider for this kind of terrain while Francois Parisien appears to be riding stronger than ever. Those three riders will be the keys for Dumoulin in his quest to take the biggest win of his career.

He will be up against an Omega Pharma-Quick Step team which intends to use its 5-pronged attack against Dumoulin. Zdenek Stybar, Sylvain Chavanel, Kevin De Weert, Niki Terpstra and Stijn Vandenbergh are not too far off the race lead and can all be used to put Dumoulin under pressure. The team is likely to send one of the latter three riders up the road rather early as they try to isolate Dumoulin in the hectic finale.

However, the Belgian team finds itself in a difficult tactical situation. The time gaps are massive and so Argos-Shimano will be happy to see an early, non-dangerous break swallow up the stage win and bonus seconds. On the other hand, Omega Pharma-Quick Step desperately wants the bonus seconds for Stybar whose fast finish means that he could take the overall win just by sprinting away from Dumoulin the final time up the Muur. That could force the Belgian team to do some of the early chase work and thus save the Argos riders for the finale and we should see a very interesting tactical battle in the first part of the race when Omega Pharma-Quick Step will do their utmost to put either Terpstra, De Weert or Vandenbergh into the early break.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step finds themselves in another dilemma on the finishing circuit. Should it come down to a final sprint up the Muur, Stybar would be one of the favourites and a stage win would all but guarantee him the overall win as well. On the other hand, it's risky to gamble everything on a final sprint and it would be tempting to send Chavanel up the road in a late attack. However, the Frenchman is 50 seconds off the race lead and so Dumoulin would only be happy to see the Frenchman finish some 20 seconds ahead of the peloton and take away the bonus seconds.

However, Chavanel is of an aggressive nature and we expect the final lap to develop into a festival of attacks with the Frenchman being one of the main protagonists. Astana, Orica-GreenEdge, Belkin and Radioshack all have strength in numbers and if a group goes clear with all those teams represented, Dumoulin could suddenly find himself with no allies to reel in a very strong group. While an early breakaway should have little chance of success, we don't expect a sprint up the Muur either. Instead, we fancy the chances of a late break which will battle it out for the stage honours on the final two climbs.

Based on his woes yesterday, our stage winner pick may be a surprise. Lars Boom lost his leader's jersey yesterday but as we wrote yesterday, his defeat came as no surprise. The Ardennes course was always likely to be too tough for the Dutchman but now he is back in his preferred terrain. Last year he finished 2nd on this stage and the early part of this race has clearly shown that he is at his peak condition at the moment. Boom thrives on the short climbs that make up the final part and he has a really fast kick in an uphill sprint. He has set his sights on today's stage win to make up for his crushed GC ambitions and he will ride aggressively in the finale. We won't be surprised to see him join a successful race-winning move but should it come down to a sprint from a select group of favourites, he would also be one of the favourites to win.

Jens Keukeleire finds himself in a similar position. The Belgian proved in the Vuelta a Burgos that he is in the form of his life but like Boom, he found the Ardennes climbs a little bit too tough for his liking. Nonetheless, he managed a good ride to finish less than 2 minutes behind stage winner Boom and he should be in the mix on today's course which suits him perfectly. Like Boom, he is a little way down on GC and so will have the freedom to mix it up in the late moves. If he gets to the bottom of the Muur in the lead group - with the race favourites or as part of a breakaway - he will be very difficult to beat.

The course also plays into the strength of Stybar but due to his GC placing, he won't get much freedom to attack. His most likely chance to win the stage is by keeping it together for a final sprint. If that happens, he will be one of the fastest riders but we doubt that it will be the preferred tactic of his team. He will probably try to put Dumoulin under pressure earlier in the stage but at his current level, the young Dutchman is unlikely to drop off.

As we expect plenty of attacks, it would be a bad idea not to mention Jan Bakelants. The Belgian proved his strength and ability to get into the right breaks yesterday despite claiming that he was on a bad day. He would probably have preferred slightly longer climbs but has the punch to excel on this kind of course. Being only 29 seconds down on GC, his rivals will stay close to him but no one has ever been able to control the Belgian.

Sebastian Langeveld was another rider who struggled on the tough Ardennes course. He is now back in his terrain and hopes to makes up for his broken GC dreams. Having been one of the stand-out riders in the Flemish classics earlier this season, the course plays to his strength and with a 4th place in the time trial and a convincing performance during the first 4 stages, he has the legs to come away with the win from a late attack.

Belkin won't win the race this year but they still hopes to add to their stage win tally and move young Wilco Kelderman up the GC. The Dutchman was really strong yesterday but made a tactical mistake by not joining the move that ended up staying away. Today's course is less suited to the climber but he is still a very punchy rider. Being some way down on GC, he won't be on the top of the list of dangerous riders for Dumoulin and he would have a good chance in a sprint from a small group.

Matti Breschel is always coming into form for this time of the season and his performances in the Tour of Denmark and yesterday's stage suggest that this year is no different. Today's stage suits him much better than yesterday's and he will be very hard to beat in a final sprint up the Muur. He is another rider who has a good chance of winning from both a late attack and a sprint.

Finally, we will once again pick a joker. Young Bob Jungels has been impressive in his first professional season, making a number of splendid time trial performances and winning two races along the way. Yesterday he climbed with the best in the toughest stage ever in the Eneco Tour and he could create a surprise today. He is part of the three-pronged Radioshack strategy and Bakelants, Jungels and Maxime Monfort are all set to race extremely aggressively in the final part of the race. Look out for the youngster to mix it up with the world elite on the final circuit.

CyclingQuotes' stage winner pick: Lars Boom

Other winner candidates: Jens Keukeleire, Zdenek Stybar

Outsiders: Jan Bakelants, Sebastian Langeveld, Wilco Kelderman, Matti Breschel

Joker: Bob Jungels