![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Soudal-Quick-Step-CRO-2.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nOur last stage race of the month starts on Tuesday and The Wolfpack is motivated to leave its mark on it.<\/p>\n
One year ago, our team came for the first time in its history to the start of the CRO Race and ended up having an unforgettable week there, as Paul Magnier dominated the bunch sprints, taking four victories and the points jersey. The Frenchman will be back at the start now, hoping to add more wins to his 2026 palmares which so far includes ten victories, the most recent of which were scored at Okolo Slovenska.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old will be joined on Soudal Quick-Step\u2019s roster for the 11th edition of the race by Steff Cras, Dries Van Gestel, Ilan Van Wilder – a top five finisher at the Tour de Suisse this season – Louis Vervaeke, and two riders coming from our feeder team: Joeri Schaper and Lars Vanden Heede.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Unlike last year, the parcours in Croatia will be much harder now. The race, starting from Split on Tuesday and concluding six days later in Zagreb, has around three chances for the sprinters, with the general classification set to be an affair between the climbers. This means that the grueling Ucka ascent, which they will tackle on the third stage, should once again play a decisive role in the final outcome.<\/p>\n
This race will be a mix of bunch sprints and some very hard stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn some days, the last climb comes not far from the finish, which should make for some exciting racing. We have a strong squad for this appointment: Paul comes from Slovakia with two wins in the bag and will have Dries and Joeri to help in the bunch sprints, while the likes of Steff and Ilan can fight for a good general classification. Lars can be there to control the flat days, and Louis, with his experience, will be of great help on all stages, regardless of the terrains. We are confident in this squad and we hope to have a good week in Croatia\u201d, said sports director Tom Steels.<\/p>\n
Photo credit: \u00a9Dario Belingheri \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a9Tim De Waele \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our last stage race of the month starts on Tuesday and The Wolfpack is motivated to leave its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-898725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}