A young and motivated team will take on the 79th edition of the race.
We’re back in Belgium this weekend, for the Tour de l’Eurométropole, the former stage race turned one-day race three years ago, which our team won on two occasions. Taking the riders from La Louvière to Tournai (which played host to the start of the very first Flèche Wallonne, back in 1936), Tour de l’Eurométropole puts on the table a demanding 176.7km-long route that promises to deliver plenty of action throughout the day.
Eleven classified climbs will pepper Saturday’s course, with the last of these hills – Côte d’Ere (400 meters, 2.8%) – featuring inside five kilometers to go. The bunch, which contains many sprinters, will undoubtedly try to keep things together there, but at the same time, the attackers will want to have a say in the finale and use the rugged terrain as springboard to victory.
Leader of the UCI World Team Classification, which we top for 80 weeks in a row now, our squad is ready for this event, our penultimate of the season on Belgian soil, where we’ll field Alvaro Hodeg, Mikkel Honoré, Iljo Keisse, Davide Martinelli, Florian Sénéchal, Jannik Steimle and Petr Vakoč.
“This is a strong team, with a couple of fast finishers, who can achieve a solid result in Tournai. As you know, most of the time this race comes down to a sprint, even if not from a large peloton. It all depends on the weather, but regardless of the conditions, we will race as we always do, aggressively and determined to be up there at the finish”, Deceuninck – Quick-Step sports director Klaas Lodewyck said.
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