Following the winter departure of several key riders including Fabio Jakobsen, Tim Declercq, and Rémi Cavagna, Soudal-QuickStep have unveiled their evolved Classics squad for the weekend’s racing at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
Several familiar faces head up the Belgian team at Opening Weekend, with former Tour of Flanders champion and 2020 Kuurne winner Kasper Asgreen taking on both races. Julian Alaphilippe co-leads the team at Omloop in his first appearance since the 2021 race.
Yves Lampaert, a perennial spring Classics contender, will race on both Saturday and Sunday, while Josef Cerny, Casper Pedersen and neo-pro Warre Vangheluwe are also in the line-up for both races.
Gianni Moscon, who joined the team from Astana Qazaqstan over the winter, will make his QuickStep Classics debut at Omloop, the fourth WorldTour race of the season. On Sunday in Kuurne, Luke Lamperti and Martin Svrcek come in for Alaphilippe and Moscon.
Asgreen, Alaphilippe, and Lampaert will be the names to watch for the Belgian squad at Omloop. At Kuurne, a race they’ve won nine times over the years, they’ll be hoping for a hard race with no bunch sprint following the loss of 2022 champion Jakobsen. Asgreen and Lampaert should be the co-leaders, while Lamperti figures to be their fastest finisher.
“We are excited about the upcoming weekend, at the start of which we’ll go with a strong squad and a lot of confidence and determination,” said Soudal-QuickStep directeur sportif Wilfred Peeters.
“Most of the guys did a good altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada and will now resume competition, and five of our guys will do both races. We can’t say these races have any more secrets, it will be mostly about finding out where we are at this moment.
“For Omloop, we have a couple of riders who could get a good result, while for Kuurne, if it comes down to a bunch sprint, we’ll be curious to see what Luke can do.”
Soudal-QuickStep’s Opening Weekend squads
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (February 24): Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Yves Lampaert, Gianni Moscon, Warre Vangheluwe, Casper Pedersen, Josef Cerny
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (February 25): Kasper Asgreen, Yves Lampaert, Luke Lamperti, Warre Vangheluwe, Casper Pedersen, Josef Cerny, Martin Svrcek
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