Marcel Kittel – the most victorious rider of the season – will lead the squad in the two Belgian one-day races scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.
Quick-Step Floors will be one of the five World Tour teams to line up for the inaugural edition of Omloop Eurometropool. The race which rolls out from Nieuwpoort and concludes in Poperinge some 177 kilometers later favours the sprinters, and for that reason Quick-Step Floors will back Marcel Kittel, winner of five stages at this year's Tour de France.
The 29-year-old German, who'll make his first outing in nearly a month, will rely on Tim Declercq, Dries Devenyns, stagiaire Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz, Iljo Keisse, Yves Lampaert, Pieter Serry and Martin Velits, a strong team capable of controlling the hostilities and bringing the race back together before it gets down to crunch time.
One day later, trainee Alvaro Hodeg and Davide Martinelli will step in to replace Kasperkiewicz and Serry for the Tour de l'Eurometropole (188.6 kilometers). The 77th edition of the event won by our team twice in the past (2006 and 2007) will take the riders from La Louvière to Tournai (which played host to the start of the very first Flèche Wallonne) and should have again the sprinters in the spotlight, although the race is no stranger to long-range attacks going all the way to the line.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
