Velogames Preview – Renewi Tour 2026

Well we’ve reached the minefield that is predicting world tour stage races in August, and this is instalment number two after the Tour de Pologne two weeks ago. I don’t know about you, but I nearly always do very badly in these races. I had no idea who to pick for Pologne and as such finished 1599th. The Renewi Tour is expected to be no different, with no clear favourite, stages that could go all sorts of ways, and riders of all shapes and sizes. So let’s try and pick it all apart, starting with the route!

The Route

The 2026 parcours follows exactly the same blueprint as last year, with five stages of sprints and Spring classic style racing. Stage three is definitely the most important stage for the general classification (GC), the others are a mix that will ask questions of the sprinters and especially those who don’t mind a bump or two. Below is the profile of stage three top give you a taste of what’s coming up.

The Riders

There are still several teams yet to confirm their rosters for this race and some riders are scheduled for both Renewi and the Vuelta. So take some riders with a pinch of salt. I’ll try and edit this the evening before the race to take out anyone not going and perhaps add in some late additions if they’re interesting enough. Anywho! Let’s run through the sprinters first. The expensive quintet includes defending champion Arnaud De Lie and Tim Merlier for 20 credits; Jasper Philipsen for 18 credits; and Olav Kooij and Jonathan Milan for 16 credits. De Lie’s form is largely unknown after having issues with illness this year, but this should be a good race for him. The other four represent the fastest sprinters in the world. It’s only Magnier who’s missing and that’s because Merlier is here instead. All four of them are bringing killer sprint trains, but obviously you can’t select them all for your team. Remember me saying this race was a minefield? There you go.

Below these guys are a veritable feast of sprinters and classics riders. The ones who catch my eye include Girmay, Pithie, and Bittner for 14 credits. The latter has had a quiet year, but was superb here last year went in on similar form. Pithie is the rider on the best form, and he is going! For 12 credits are Lapeira and Benoot, De Bondt, Vermeersch, Kubiš, and Teunissen. For 10 credits there are Mohorič, Sheffield, and Wærenskjold. At 8 credits there are Segaert, Berckmoes, Lamperti, Trentin, and Arrieta. So you can see why I’m having problems. I’ll definitely update this after all rosters are confirmed and we have a little more information, so remember to check again before the race to see if I’ve got my act together.

What I can give you, are some tips for the cheap 6 and 4 credit riders to compliment your more pricey team leaders. First up is Huub Artz, and despite having a strong team leader is on great form. He even picked up the pieces after De Lie left the Tour early and achieved five top 10 finishes. Rui Oliveira just won the points classification at the Volta a Portugal, but it’s unclear who UAE are riding for. There aren’t many options for 4 credits that are standing out to me, but I promise to do some research and update this before the race. If all else fails though, there are team mates for a few top riders down here who could pick you up a few assist points for free, which is always a good fall back option.

So just a little guide for this one, which probably hasn’t helped you at all and may even have left you more confused than where you started. Come back on Tuesday evening and I promise we’ll have this all sorted out.

Now it’s Tuesday evening and every team has announced its roster, it’s time to complete the research and see if there’s anyone I missed yesterday. First up is 8 credit Søren Kragh Andersen who just finished 5th at the Tour of Denmark. For 6 credits is Aimé De Gendt, who loves a breakaway and enjoyed a good Spring Classics campaign. Scanning the 4 credit category and there are one or two that stand out. Hartthijs De Vries loves a breakaway and Storm Ingebrigsten just won a stage of the Tour of Denmark from a breakaway. There are probably more that you’ve all spotted, so feel free to have a chat in the comments, but if I’m going for a 4 credit rider, then it’s probably one of these two. And that’ll about do it! Vuelta guide in the next day or so after the game goes live, so stay tuned for that one.