Enric Mas will close out his run with the Wolfpack at the race scheduled between 17-22 October.
For the third year in a row, the season ends in China at the Tour of Guangxi, a race which has been kind with our team, who at the past two editions has won a total of six stages and three distinctive jerseys. Coming into the race, Deceuninck – Quick-Step tops the UCI World Team Classification – which our squad has led since March 2018 – and now has the chance to win it for the second consecutive season.
The parcours will be again a mix of flat and hilly stages, with the now traditional climb to Nongla (3.2 kilometers, 7.3%) set to be decisive in the fight for the overall standings, together with the ten bonus seconds awarded to the victor at the end of the day.
Enric Mas, who will pin a number on his Deceuninck – Quick-Step jersey for the last time, will carry our team’s GC ambitions at the Chinese race, where he will line up after strong showings at both Milano-Torino and Il Lombardia, together with Rémi Cavagna, Mikkel Honoré, Iljo Keisse, Davide Martinelli, Pieter Serry and Petr Vakoč.
“It’s a shame that we don’t have Alvaro Hodeg here, who would have been a protagonist on the flat stages, but we have a back-up plan for the bunch sprints and we are quite confident we can score some nice results in the Tour of Guangxi. You can be sure that we’ll try to do something, as we are motivated to end the season on a high and do a good general classification with Enric, who showed in the Italian Classics last week that he can stay with the best riders in the world and is really motivated for this race”, a confident Geert Van Bondt said ahead of the final World Tour appointment.
Photo credit: ©Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/ Getty Images
Pieter Serry