OmegaPharma-Lotto has announced a team built around the talents of classics star Philippe Gilbert and sprinter André Greipel for Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen. The Belgian ProTeam’s roster, which differs greatly to the one published by the Ronde organisers, also gives youth a chance though, with the inclusion of 23-year-old Belgian Klaas Lodewyck and 21-year-old Briton Adam Blythe.
While OmegaPharma-Lotto has been more successful than big Belgian rival Quick Step, the blue and white team has enjoyed much greater success in Vlaanderens Mooiste. While Quick Step has won four of the last six Ronden, OmegaPharma-Lotto has not won the race since Peter Van Petegem’s victory in 2003; although it has taken three second places with Leif Hoste, who has left for Russian team Katusha.
Gilbert has been in top form so far this season, having won stages in the Volta ao Algarve and Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Montepaschi Strade Bianchi over the unsurfaced roads of Tuscany. He was also one of the strongest riders in the Milano-Sanremo two weeks ago, although he was no match for HTC-Highroad’s Matt Goss in the final sprint.
Greipel meanwhile, has been less impressive in the sprints than he was last year, with just an Algarve stage win to his name amongst a string of seconds and thirds. This was until the first stage of the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde though, where the German escaped with the stage-winning break to take a very classics-style victory on a course that traversed a number of the cobbles and hills that will be raced over on Sunday.
The big German has also been displaying his talents as a powerful super-domestique this season, driving the peloton up Sanremo’s Cipressa on behalf of Gilbert.
As well as Gilbert and Greipel, the team is fielding a third hopeful in the shape of 25-year-old Jürgen Roelandts, who finished second in last Saturday’s E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, as well as ninth in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February.
OmegaPharma-Lotto team for the Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Adam Blythe, David Boucher, Philippe Gilbert, André Greipel, Klaas Lodewyck, Vicente Reynes, Jürgen Roelandts and Marcel Sieberg