Fernando Gaviria, Marcel Kittel or Zdenek Stybar will all be in action on Tuesday afternoon.
Held in the Hainaut province, Binche-Chimay-Binche (195.2 kilometers) will see the riders take on a hilly and testing course which includes several laps of a circuit that should spice up the race. The last 1500 meters feature two cobbled sections and an uphill drag to the finish, where several teams will most likely try to split what should already be a stretched out field and bring their riders in a good position so that they can go for the win.
Quick-Step Floors will have several cards to play on this terrain, as it comes here with a solid and well-rounded team that can be in the mix regardless of how the race will unfold. Fernando Gaviria and Matteo Trentin, winners of four Grand Tour stages apiece this season, will provide options in case the race will conclude in a bunch sprint, while Czech duo Zdenek Stybar (the 2014 victor) and Petr Vakoč will look for opportunities if it comes down to an erratic race in the closing kilometers.
The eight-man squad for the Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke will comprise also Rémi Cavagna, stagiaire Alvaro Hodeg, Omloop Mandel winner Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra.
Scheduled on the same day as Binche-Chimay-Binche, the Münsterland Giro will see German sprinter Marcel Kittel make his final outing of the season in front of his countrymen, in a race he has won on two occasions (2011, 2012). The course between Wadersloh and Münster is 198.7km-long and slightly undulated, but that shouldn't prevent the sprinters from fighting for victory at the end of the day.
Kittel, winner of 14 races this year including five Tour de France stages, will be joined for the 12th edition of the Münsterland Giro by Jack Bauer, Tim Declercq, trainee Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz, Yves Lampaert, Davide Martinelli, Pieter Serry and Julien Vermote.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
