Team BikeExchange-Jayco’s Michael Matthews and Dylan Groenewegen are expected to compete at the inaugural Maryland Cycling Classic supported by UnitedHealthcare and headline the early rosters for four WorldTour squads invited to compete on September 4.
A preliminary roll call of international riders provided by race organisers also confirmed Giacomo Nizzolo and Sep Vanmarcke of Israel-Premier Tech, Tony Gallopin and Toms Skujins of Trek-Segafredo, and Marijn Van Den Berg of EF Education-EasyPost.
After a delay of two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Maryland Cycling Classic rescheduled its debut for late summer 2022 with a start in Sparks, Maryland and a finish in downtown Baltimore along the Chesapeake Bay. Australian programme BikeExchange-Jayco and US-based Trek-Segafredo were the first two teams confirmed for the rescheduled launch of the UCI 1.Pro event, which is the only 1.Pro race in the US this year.
“I am excited to be racing again in America, it has been a while since I have raced there. My last race in the United States was at the World Championship, and I am looking forward to meeting our American fans again,” Matthews said in a press release, referring to his appearance at the Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, where he finished second.
“We have a strong team going there, and looking at the course, it seems to be set up for different type of racing. We’ll have to see how the race will evolve. It’s going to be exciting.”
Matthews won stage 14 of the Tour this year with a stinging acceleration on an uphill finish to Mende. It was his first stage win at the Tour in five years, when in 2017 he also scored the green points jersey. His teammate Groenewegen also secured a win at the Tour this year, opening with a stage 3 victory in Denmark and then finishing with a second place on the Champs-Élysées.
The Maryland Cycling Classic route begins with 144 kilometres through the rolling hills in north Maryland which will be ripe for opportunists in a breakaway. The final 50km of the 193.7km course are set across four and half laps of a 12km circuit in downtown Charm City that beckon to lead-out trains in a fast finish.
It’s not just sprinters who will compete on a course set up like one of the Classics. Among the top all-around performers from North America confirmed to take the start line are Neilson Powless and Alex Howes of EF Education-EasyPost, Quinn Simmons of Trek-Segafredo, US Pro road race champion Kyle…
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