A team comprising World Tour and Devo riders will be at the start this Wednesday.
A total of 19 stage victories and five GC wins with as many different riders make Soudal Quick-Step the most successful team this side of the century at Okolo Slovenska, a race where we are returning this year looking to add to this already impressive palmares. It will be the 70th edition of the event created in the summer of 1954, when the peloton had to face seven intense days of racing.
Once again, Okolo Slovenska will put on the table a nice mix of sprint days and opportunities for the puncheurs and climbers, at the same time making sure that nothing will be set in stone before Sunday’s final stage. And the reason for that is that the organizers have decided to include the daunting Kralova Hola, a 12.6km averaging 8.7% ascent taking the bunch to an altitude of almost 2000 meters, as the race’s only summit finish.
Paul Magnier, who won a poker of stages at the previous edition, returns at the start with the clear goal of being again among the protagonists in the bunch sprints, even though there won’t be as many opportunities as last year. Supporting Paul will be Cériel Desal, Yves Lampaert, Dries Van Gestel and Warre Vangheluwe, while Giro della Valle d’Aosta winner Henrique Bravo and Tour of Antalya best climber Said Cisneros will get a chance to go for a good general classification.
Okolo Slovenska is a race that we like, a race where we won the GC several times, on top of almost twenty stages, so we have a lot of nice memories from that beautiful country.
“This edition is a bit harder, but the team will be built again around Paul, who will rely on a strong lead-out and a solid team to control things. We also have Henrique and Said coming from the Devo team; they are our climbers for the two hard stages that will be decisive for the overall standings and for them this will be a great opportunity to race with the World Tour squad and gain more experience”, said sports director Iljo Keisse ahead of traveling to Slovakia for what will be one of our team’s final stage races of the season.
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