Rabobank has announced a flexible team for Sunday’s Grand Prix Ouest France-Plouay, where it will look to take part in the breakaways but still have options in a sprint. The French WorldTour race - in the cycling-mad Breton village of Plouay, which hosted the 2000 World championships - can be one of the toughest races to predict, and has been won by solo riders and bunch sprinters in recent years; the Dutch team hopes that its performance in last weekend’s Vattenfall Cyclassics can be repeated.
“We were strong in Hamburg, and our plan worked,” said directeur sportif Nico Verhoeven. “We were present in the breakaways, and in the bunch sprint, Mark Renshaw showed he’s in good form with his sixth place. With some more help preparing the sprint, the results would have been even more favourable.
“So we will continue that line,” he added. “We will be at the start with basically the same plan of attack as we had at the Vattenfall Cyclassics. [Paul] Martens, [Michael] Matthews and [Luis Leon] Sánchez as spearheads with possible breakaways and in sprints with bigger breakaway groups.
“We will play the Renshaw card in case of a bunch sprint.”
The race will also see a return to the peloton of Maarten Tjallingii, who has been out of action since fracturing his hip in the third stage of the Tour de France.
“It’s a test,” the 34-year-old explained. “My goal is to start and ride along. I can train at home, but riding along in a race gives me the possibility to feel how it goes straight away. At first I had hoped to be able to make my comeback in Almelo, next week. It turned out to be possible a week earlier. That’s favourable.
“It’s still a test, we can’t expect me ride along full on already,” he repeated. “First we’ll see how this goes, afterwards we can set new goals.”
Rabobank team for Ouest France-Plouay
Jetse Bol, Paul Martens, Michael Matthews, Steven Kruijswijk, Mark Renshaw, Tom Slagter, Luis Leon Sanchez and Maarten Tjallingii