The sprinters will be again in the spotlight this Sunday.
Named in the honour of Jean-Pierre Monseré, the Belgian who in 1970 defeated Leif Mortensen and Felice Gimondi en route to winning the prized rainbow jersey in Leicester, this weekend’s 202.1km-long race takes place again between Hooglede and Roeselare. The peloton will cover several times a fast local circuit which despite the presence of a short hill and the cobblestone sector of Gitsbergstraat, is expected to come down to a bunch gallop, like it was the case last year, when our team took home the spoils.
Mark Cavendish, who was in the thick of the action just a few days ago at Le Samyn, will lead Deceuninck – Quick-Step at the ninth edition of the Belgian race, where he will make his third outing of the season. The 2011 winner of the rainbow stripes will be joined by former New Zealand Champion Shane Archbold, Josef Cerny, Iljo Keisse, Stijn Steels, Jannik Steimle and Bert Van Lerberghe.
“We are looking forward to GP Monseré this Sunday, it will be an exciting race and we’ll have another chance of getting a good result. We are going there with a strong team, consisting of guys who can control things and riders who can feature in the finale, so the motivation is very high. The weather conditions look good, which means it will be quite hard to split the peloton, but we have options for both a bunch sprint and a small group getting clear at some point and going all the way”, said sports director Rik Van Slycke.
Bert Van Lerberghe 
Josef Černý