Everything behind a third victory for the Belgian in the biggest day of the team’s year
Quick Step is unsurprisingly fielding its strongest team possible in this Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, as it seeks a third victory for Tom Boonen. The team virtually owned the race in recent years with Boonen’s double in 2005/06, as well as Stijn Devolder’s in 2008/09, but found itself second best to Swiss Fabian Cancellara in the races it loves most last year and needs to reassert itself.
“For our team the Ronde is one of the most important moments in the season” said Quick Step Sports Director Wilfried Peeters. “We're lining up for the start with a team that's growing, built up around Boonen and with some individuals who could really make their mark.
“We decided to prepare some athletes for this race with the Driedaagse van De Panne,” he explained, “for others, including Boonen, the choice was different: to concentrate on a few specific workouts before Sunday's race to fine tune his conditioning.”
Boonen’s confidence will be high going into the race, after his sprint victory in last Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem, while Sylvain Chavanel and Gert Steegmans, the other key members of the team have showed good form in De Panne.
“We have three young riders on the team who are riding in the Ronde for the first time,” said Peeters, “that would be [Davide] Malacarne, [Andreas] Stauff and [Dries] Devenyns. All three of them really earned a place on this squad with solid, high-profile races. We're sure they can perform well and have a good race on Sunday as well."
Quick Step for the Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Tom Boonen, Sylvain Chavanel, Dries Devenyns, Davide Malacarne, Andreas Stauff, Gert Steegmans, Niki Terpstra and Kevin Van Impe.