Our squad will go into the two one-day races with a firm grip on the World Tour team classification.
Eros Capecchi, Rémi Cavagna, Tim Declercq, neo-pro James Knox, Davide Martinelli, Florian Sénéchal and Zdenek Stybar have traveled earlier this week to Canada, where in a couple of days they will line out at the start of the only two World Tour one-day races held outside of Europe, which this year run their ninth edition.
First event is the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec (September 7), which will see the riders cover 16 laps of a 12.6km circuit that includes four demanding climbs: Côte de la Montagne (375 m, 10%), Côte de la Potasse (420 m, 9%), Montée de la Fabrique (190 m, 7%) and Montée du Fort (1000 m, 4%).
Then, on Sunday, the peloton will take on the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal (195.2 kilometers), another race run on a circuit, this time 12.2km in length; Côte Camillien-Houde (1800 m, 8%), Côte de Polytechnique (780 m, 6%) and Avenue du Parc (560 m, 4%) are the three difficulties of the day, which should shake up the bunch and be used by the riders as springboard to victory.
World Tour team standings leader Quick-Step Floors will be led from the car by sports director Davide Bramati, who is confident in his riders' chances: "We look forward to Quebec and Montreal, two important, well-organized and hard World Tour races where we have always been among the protagonists. Stybar comes here after showing a strong form in both the BinckBank Tour and the Bretagne Classic, and will be one of our cards, together with Cavagna and Sénéchal. The team doesn't lack depth and strength, so you can expect us to try something, as we really want to leave Canada with some strong results in the bag."
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