Rio 2016 road racing champion Anna van der Breggen heads a strong home entry for the Ladies Tour of Holland that starts tomorrow ©Getty Images

Anna van der Breggen, the Olympic road racing champion and overall leader of this year’s International Cycling Union (UCI) Women’s WorldTour, is one of a number of top Dutch riders who will compete on home soil in the penultimate stage of the series, the Ladies Tour of Holland, due to get underway tomorrow.

Other home riders involved include the defending champion, Chantal Blaak and the woman she beat into second place on this stage last year, Ellen van Dijk, winner of the European time trial title for the last two years.

Also starting in the last stage race of the 2017 Women’s WorldTour - which concludes with a one-day race in Madrid on September 9 - are Dutch riders Kirsten Wild, currently 16th in the overall Tour rankings, and Annemiek van Vleuten, currently third in the rankings with 763 points behind Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma, who has 798, and van der Breggen, who leads with 859.

Van der Breggen and Blaak - currently 19th in the overall standings - will be working to maintain the comfortable standings lead held by their team Boels-Dolmans, who have 2948 points ahead of Team Sunweb on 1860 and Wiggle High5 1608.

Britain's Lizzie Deignan enters the Ladies Tour of Holland on a high having won her first UCI Women's WorldTour event of 2017 at Grand Prix de Plouay-Lorient Agglomeration ©Getty Images
Britain's Lizzie Deignan enters the Ladies Tour of Holland on a high having won her first UCI Women's WorldTour event of 2017 at Grand Prix de Plouay-Lorient Agglomeration ©Getty Images

Also contributing to the Boels Dolmans cause will be Britain’s Lizzie Deignan, whose team mates set her up for her first UCI Women’s WorldTour win of the year in the Grand Prix de Plouay-Lorient Agglomeration on Saturday (August 26). 

Deignan thus became one of only three riders to have won the French race twice, joining Marianne Vos and Emma Pooley.

The Briton’s first victory was in 2015, just before her World Championship road race win in the United States, so this latest success bodes well for this year’s worlds, which take place in Bergen in Norway next month.

Overall Van der Breggen, with none of her direct challengers racing, extended her overall lead as she finished 19th.

And Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Cervélo-Bigla Pro Cycling Team) also extended what is now an unassailable overall lead in the Best Young Rider classification.

The Ladies Tour of Holland starts tomorrow with a 4.3km opening time trial in Wageningen.

The following day, the riders will start a second Gelderse stage in Eibergen and finish in Arnhem.

On the third day there due to be is a 16km time trial, and on day four the riders proceed from Gennep to Weert.

On the two closing days on Saturday and Sunday (September 2 and 3), the Limburg hill countryside will provide a spectacular setting for finishes at Vaals and Sittard.