Not much history to the “Contre le Montre par Equipe” in the Netherlands. The 2005 edition was the first one to be held in Eindhoven. The introduction of the ProTour gave birth to this race. A Team Time Trial for ProTour teams is held over a distance of sixty kilometres.
The Dutch are glad to add this race to their short ProTour organised list, only having the Amstel Gold Race and the partly Dutch organised Benelux Tour besides this Team Time Trial contest.


So far, Eindhoven has a contract to organising this race until 2008. The only downside this race has is that the Tour of Switzerland’s final race day is organised on the same day as this race. This is unfortunate for the organisers and general public, since many good cyclists will be present in Switzerland and can’t show their skills in Holland. They will have their hopes set on a new date in the future so it doesn’t coincide with other races. The route itself leads the cyclists out of Eindhoven, after a quick visit to a few nearby towns the riders turn back to Eindhoven’s inner city, where the finish line is located.


Usually TTT’s (Team Time Trials) are part of one or more of the grand tours, but this race is a race on its own account. Traditionally Spanish teams will want to do well in this type of race, since their competition towards fellow Spanish teams is fierce.
Also teams like Discovery Channel, T-Mobile and Team CSC have great time trialling squads and stand a great chance of winning here. Nevertheless, it was Team Gerolsteiner who got the inaugural win in 2005. Let’s hope this new concept will prove to be a good idea!