Tour of Belgium winner looking at mid-race time trial and pre-Tour de France mountain test
Tony Martin will lead the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team’s overall ambitions in the Critérium du Dauphiné, which starts in Champéry on Sunday, June 2nd. The World time trial champion recently successfully defended his Tour of Belgium title, and will be keen to test himself in the mountains before July’s Tour de France. The German will not be the only rider from the Belgian team aiming to get something from the race, however, with others looking for stage glory.
"We have a quite strong team," said directeur sportif Brian Holm. "We are balanced and competitive for each kind of final. For the flat stages we have riders like Gianni Meersman and Nikolas Maes. Then we have mountains riders like Sylvain Chavanel, He is always a factor as he was in Amgen Tour of California — the first race after a long stop, now he is back on track. We have Tony Martin who showed his form in the time trial, and even the climbs, at Tour of Belgium. The time trial will be four stage. It is 32.5km and almost flat, so perfect for a powerful guy like Tony. It is also important to see how we can perform on the climbs prior to the tour.
"We also have a guy like Michal Kwiatkowski, who will be back racing after the classics," Holm continued. "I wouldn't consider him a big favourite for the race, but with him you never know. We're putting no pressure on him and we will just see what he can do. The team will be completed by Frantisek Rabon, Pieter Serry and Martin Velits, who have the task to help the other guys out to make sure they can do a good job and go for top results.
“For us, this race is not only one of the races for the approach to Le Tour,” Holm added. “This race also represents something more, and we're there to fight to try and get a good result."
Having ruled himself out of the Tour de France, Belgian champion Tome Boonen will meanwhile be leading the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team in the Heistse Pijl, a 170km Belgian race, in which then Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider Matt Brammeier took second place last year.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step for the Critérium du Dauphiné
Sylvain Chavanel, Michal Kwiatkowski, Nikolas Maes, Tony Martin, Gianni Meersman, Frantisek Rabon, Pieter Serry, Martin Velits
Omega Pharma-Quick Step for the Heistse Pijl
Tom Boonen, Kevin De Weert, Andrew Fenn, Serge Pauwels, Gert Steegmans, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Julien Vermote