The Scheldeprijs in Schoten, near Antwerp, Belgium, is gaining popularity thanks to the shuffling of the Spring Classics calendar. Twelve ProTour team will take the start in the 2010 edition - twice as many as in the past. The Scheldeprijs is now held on April 7, the Wednesday between the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.
In the past, the Scheldeprijs had been held after the cobbled classics and before Liège-Bastogne-Liège, being less useful as a preparation for some teams with regards to the next races.
The 12 ProTour teams are Quick Step, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Saxo Bank, Euskaltel-Euskadi, AG2R-La Mondiale, Team Sky, Milram, Lampre-Vini Farnese, Rabobank, Team Katusha, Garmin-Transitions and HTC-Columbia, according to the belga news agency. The ten professional Continental teams are Landbouwkrediet, Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator, BBox Bouygues Telecom, Saur-Sojasun, Ceramica Flaminia, Skil-Shimano, Vacansoleil, Cervélo Test Team, BMC Racing Team and Team Vorarlberg-Corratec. There is currently one wild card given to Palmans, two other wild cards will be given out closer to race day.
In 2009, Alessandro Petacchi won the race, ahead of Kevin van Hummel and Dominique Rollin. Petacchi as well as Tom Boonen have already indicated they wanted to start this year. Boonen won the race in 2004 and 2006. He also raised his hands in victory in 2008, but Mark Cavendish slipped by the Belgian in the final second of the race.