The organizers of the Gent-Wevelgem classic have announced the line-up of teams for the 2014 edition of their event. Unsurprisingly, the 18 ProTeam will be joined by Belgian squads Topsport Vlaanderen and Wanty-Groupe Gobert while Cofidis, MTN Qhubeka, Androni-Venezuela, NetApp-Endura, and IAM have also made the cut.

With a little less than 2 months to its March 30 date, Gent-Wevelgem has confirmed the list of teams that will make up the field for the Belgian classic. As it is the case for most major one-day races, the field will consist of 25 teams of 8 riders.

As the race is on the WorldTour calendar, the 18 ProTeams have all been guaranteed a place in the race and this has left the organizers with the option to grant 7 wildcards to pro continental teams. The list contains no major surprises but has an interesting novelty.

For the first time, the Italian Androni-Venezuela team will ride the cobbled classics. In the past, the team has mostly been focused on races in Italy, Southern Europe, Southern America, and Asia but with the backing of the Venezuelan government, they intend to get into the WorldTour in the near future. This has seen them focus more on races in Northern Europe for the coming season and the signing of former Vacansoleil riders Johnny Hoogerland and Kenny Van Hummel have undoubtedly played a big role in their wildcard.

Unsurprisingly, the Belgian teams Topsport Vlaanderen and Wanty-Group Gobert which will be led by classics specialist Bjorn Leukemans, have made the cut. IAM will return to the race with Heinrich Haussler who was 4th in 2013, and is likely to line up their new star Sylvain Chavanel as well.

MTN Qhubeka are almost guaranteed to field a roster that includes Milan-Sanremo winner Gerald Ciolek while Team NetApp-Endura will continue to gather experience in the cobbled classics. The final wildcard has been given to Cofidis who has a long history in the cobbled races.

The list is more or less identical to the one which was announced for the E3 Harelbeke which takes places 2 days earlier, with NetApp-Endura taking the place of Unitedhealthcare.

This year's route will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and will pass many of the historical sites. Between the start in Deinze and the finish in Wevelgem, the riders will again pass 9 hellingen, with the famous Kemmelberg and its two passages again being the key point in the race.

The race is one of the few cobbled classics that the sprinters can realistically be won by a sprinter and the winners list contains both classics specialists and fast finishers. Last year Peter Sagan won his first big one-day race when he made it into the right breakaway in the hilly zone of the race, before escaping on his own near the end. Borut Bozic beat Greg Van Avermaet and Haussler in the sprint for 2nd.