Paul Magnier is back in action after his impressive Opening Weekend debut.
Our team will head with a lot of motivation to the Samyn Classic, a race we won on four occasions with three different riders in the last 15 years. As was the case at the previous editions, the 199.1km-long course is stacked with rough cobblestone sectors and more than a dozen climbs; the last of these small but hard hills comes inside the final kilometers of Tuesday’s race, thus playing into the favour of the attackers, who’ll try to dispatch their opponents there and claim a solo victory in Dour.
Soudal Quick-Step will take on the 57th edition of the Belgian race with a seven-man squad consisting of Ayco Bastiaens, Gil Gelders, Paul Magnier – who will be at the start after his remarkable runner-up spot in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Martin Svrcek, Warre Vangheluwe, Jordi Warlop, and Lars Vanden Heede, the young Belgian who comes from the Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team, for which he won a total of three races last year.
“It’s the first race of the season in Wallonie. The first 100 kilometers should be quiet, but after that we’ll enter on a circuit which we cover three times. The many cobbled sectors in each lap will make for an unpredictable and technical race. We start with a young, but at the same time motivated team, so we are confident in our chances of getting a good result at the end of the day. Our leader will be Paul, who was on the podium in all the races he has done so far this year. There are a lot of strong teams at the start, but we are looking forward to it”, explained sports director Iljo Keisse.
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