The Belgian one-day race, Halle-Ingooigem, is held today and offers riders with ambitions for the national championships one last possibility to test their legs ahead of this weekend's battles. Last year won by Nacer Bouhanni, the race traverses the Flemish Ardennes and offers some solid climbing along the way and could either be won from a breakaway or a bunch sprint.

The final two weeks prior to the start of the Tour de France are known as rather eventless as the only bigger UCI races taking place are the national championships. However, there is one notable exception, the Belgian one-day race Halle-Ingooigem which is held today.

The 198,4km race starts in Halle and the first 113,9km take the riders through the Flemish Ardennes to the finish line in Ingooigem. Along the way, the peloton is set to tackle 8 of the famous hellingen known from the spring classics, La Houppe, Kanarieberg, Kruisberg, Hottondberg, Cote de Trieu, Tiegemberg, Holstraat and Nokereberg all offering a chance for the riders to test their legs.

Having crossed the finish line, the peloton starts the first of 5 laps on a 16,9km finishing circuit that includes the Tiegemberg. From the top of the last passage of that hill, 12,2km of mostly flat roads remain.

At a first glance, one might expect the race to often come down to a bunch sprint but surprisingly often, escapees manages to hold off the peloton. Last year, the attackers failed and the race ended up as a preview of the French championships as Nacer Bouhanni and Arnaud Demare made it a 1-2 for FDJ before going on to repeating that feat in the race for the tricolour jersey.

That was, however, the first bunch sprint finish during the first 13 years of this millennium, thus proving that the climbing is often severe enough to deny the sprinters their chance. The recent standout performer has been loyal domestique Jurgen Van De Walle who won both the 2009 and 2010 editions from breakaways, so far his only professional wins.

Bouhanni will be back to defend his title this year as leader of a very strong FDJ team that will do what it can to deliver their captain to a win in his final race in the French champion's jersey. Tom Boonen will also show off his Belgian colours for a final time and will line up alongside Gianni Meersman who has big ambitions for this year's Belgian championships due to it hilly course.

Van De Walle is back in his preferred race as part of a line-up that also includes the likes of Jurgen Roelandts and Kenny Dehaes. Vacansoleil is at the start with some of its fast men, Kris Boeckmans, Marry Markus and Kenny Van Hummel while Bjorn Leukemans and former Dutch champion Pim Ligthart want to test their legs one last time ahead of Sunday's races.

The big ProTeams will go up against a heap of strong ProContinental and Continental teams and will even be challenged by a very strong Belgian national team. Composed by Stijn Devolder, Kristof Goddaert, Ben Hermans, Kevin Hulsmans, Jens Keukeleire, Nick Nuyens, Sebastien Rosseler and Sep Vanmarcke, the national selection contains some of the finest talent that the cycling-mad country has to offer.

The race is expected to finish between 16.50 and 17.18 and starting at 14.50, we will try to set up a live coverage of the event.