Our feeder squad is motivated for one of the season’s final races.
An event created in 1964, the Grand Prix Cerami has recently changed its parcours, which will be more demanding and selective. If in the past a bunch sprint was almost sure to happen despite a couple of short hills, things will be completely different now, as the organizers have introduced two cobbled climbs, a short but steep one where the average gradient reaches 9% and a longer one of almost two kilometers.
Considering this, the race is expected to come to life earlier than in the past, as the terrain - where things will be much harder to control now - is perfect to make the difference and put pressure on the riders relying on their fast finish.
Soudal Quick-Step Devo will be at the start with an attack-orientated team that has more than one card to play: Tour du Rwanda stage victor Matthijs De Clercq, Cériel Desal, Luc Royer, Gauthier Servranckx, Warre Vangheluwe - the winner of last month’s Omloop Mandel-Leie-Schelde - Matijs Van Strijthem, and Marc Zafra.
Sports director Eliot Lietaer previewed Saturday’s race: “The route has changed a lot, and for that reason we are going there with riders capable of attacking and shaping the race before the final lap. We have many riders that love this type of racing and we are confident in our chances of getting a good result. It’s a really strong squad we are taking to this race and we have a lot of confidence in our chances.”
Photo credit: ©Rhode Van Elsen / Getty Images
©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
