Paul Magnier, Jasper Stuyven, and Dylan van Baarle are set to ride both races, on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
One of the best weekends of the year is almost here, the weekend we\u2019ll kick off our 24th consecutive Spring Classics campaign. On the menu, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne \u2013 two one-day races that our team has won a combined total of 13 times and where we\u2019ll aim to be again among the main protagonists.<\/p>\n
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad \u2013 who will be ten kilometers longer than last year \u2013 comes with a revamped run-in to the finish. After the start in Gent, the riders will take on a total of eight cobblestone sectors and twelve hills. Of these, the ones that catch everyone\u2019s attention are Tenbosse and Parikeberg, which were added to the route inside the last 40 kilometers to bring some extra challenges, and of course, the famous Muur-Kapelmuur \u2013 Bosberg combo, coming in the final part of the race.<\/p>\n
Runner-up last year at his debut here, Paul Magnier returns at the start. The Frenchman has won two stages and the points jersey last week at the Volta ao Algarve, and will hope to be in the mix also on the Belgian cobbles. Magnier will be joined at the start by Yves Lampaert, Casper Pedersen, Pepijn Reinderink, Jasper Stuyven \u2013 a winner of the race in 2020 \u2013 Dylan van Baarle, who triumphed here three years ago, and Dries Van Gestel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Omloop is always special, because it\u2019s the first cobblestone race of the season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a nervous race, but at the same time, an exciting one. We have a strong team and we are curious to see how the dynamic will work with the new guys in the squad. Anything can happen in a race like this, but we are confident in our chances and motivated to play the cards we have on Saturday\u201d, said sports director Tom Steels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Twenty-four hours later, Paul, Jasper \u2013 who was victorious at this race exactly one decade ago \u2013 and Dylan will be in action at the 194.9km Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, where Soudal Quick-Step\u2019s roster is set to include also Devo Team rider Cerial Desal, Laurenz Rex \u2013 making his first appearance since the AlUla Tour injury at the end of January \u2013 Bert Van Lerberghe and neo-pro Jonathan Vervenne.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have several riders who will do the double this weekend, which means we\u2019ll see Paul, Jasper and Dylan also in Kuurne. The course is a demanding one, with many climbs and narrow roads, and even though the final part is a flat one, it\u2019s not sure there will be a bunch sprint. I\u2019d say the chances of having one to decide the winner are fifty-fifty, so the attackers also have their opportunities, especially as there will be some wind that could make a selection. We\u2019ll try to be in the finale with Paul, who\u2019ll rely on a strong team to support him there\u201d, said sports director Iljo Keisse.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo credit:\u00a0\u00a9Wout Beel<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a9Dario Belingheri \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Magnier, Jasper Stuyven, and Dylan van Baarle are set to ride both races, on Saturday and Sunday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,63361,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-445045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-soudal-quick-step-pro-cycling-team","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}