The five-day event is scheduled between July 28 and August 1.
The 105th edition of the Tour de France is nearing its conclusion, but across the border, Quick-Step Floors is getting ready for another stage race, the half-century old Tour de Wallonie, where our team has won eight stages and the overall classification on two occasions, most recently in 2015.
Kasper Asgreen, Alvaro Hodeg, James Knox and Jhonatan Narvaez – four of the squad's neo-pros – will line out at the start of the 45th edition, where they will be joined by Dwars door Vest-Wlaanderen winner Rémi Cavagna, best young rider of the Tour de Suisse Enric Mas and Pieter Serry, who will resume racing after finishing just outside the podium at the National Championships in Binche, four weeks ago.
The Tour de Wallonie will roll out on Saturday from La Louvière, the regular start venue of the race back in the days it was called the Quatre Jours du Hainaut, with a flat stage peppered with some cobblestones, which will be followed by a hilly one that is set to include three ascents of the famous Namur climb (2000 meters, 5.2%), where the general classification will be reshuffled. Stage 3 – with Côte de Samrée and Côte du Pied Mont jammed in the last 30 kilometers – will add an extra spice to the fight for the yellow jersey, before two final days on which the sprinters will have their eyes on.
"We'll start with a very young team, so for us it will be a good opportunity to see how our youngsters are doing and developing at the highest level. It's been a long period without races for all of them, but they have spent their time well, training at altitude. Coming out of this race break means that it's difficult to predict how they will perform, but we are confident that we can be in the mix when the stages will be decided. Wallonie – which has a strong field and it's far from being an easy race – will reveal all these things to us, day by day", explained sports director Geert Van Bondt.
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