Winner of the race in 2020, Jannik Steimle is back at the start of the event that will take place between 15-19 September.
Unlike the previous years, when it smiled to the puncheurs, the upcoming edition of the Tour of Slovakia will be a sprinter-friendly one, despite the presence of some short climbs on the parcours of the race which is set to start with a 1.6km prologue in Košice, the country’s second-largest city, and conclude with a flat day in Trnava, the picturesque town lying not far from the Little Carpathians mountain range.
Our team has won the race at the last three editions, most recently with Jannik Steimle, who will be back at the start with bib number one on his back. Victorious this season on the opening day of the Tour de l’Ain and at the Grote Prijs Marcel Kint, Alvaro Hodeg will be the Wolfpack’s man for the bunch sprints, where he’ll rely on a solid lead-out train comprising former New Zealand Champion Shane Archbold, Iljo Keisse, Olympic Champion Michael Mørkøv and Stijn Steels. Rounding out our team will be stagiaire and UCI Esports World Champion Jason Osborne, who will make his first outing for Deceuninck – Quick-Step in a stage race.
“We are happy to return to this race, always well-organised, and to Slovakia, the country of our sponsor Janom. It’s not every day that a stage race gets underway with a 1.6km individual time trial, and we are curious to see Jason there, as he has quite a big engine. Then the week will continue with some beautiful stages, on an up-and-down course which won’t be that hard, meaning the sprinters will have quite a few chances. Michael will be Alvaro’s lead-out man, but we mustn’t forget also Jannik, he is the defending champion and can feature again in the GC fight. With this squad, we are confident we will get some good results next week”, explained Deceuninck – Quick-Step sports director Tom Steels.
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