Jan Bakelants will lead Ag2r in Milan-Sanremo.
"This is a race for skilled riders like top sprinters and punchers," manager Vincent Lavenu said. "Most of the best riders will be there such as Sagan, Cancellara, Van Avermaet etc. Regarding our team, our main actor will be Jan Bakelants. He has been in a fantastic shape since the beginning of the season. He is definitely able to make the difference on a technical finish. To me, he has the proper experience and vison to excel during this race. Obviously, others riders will be great competitors. In particular I am thinking of Matteo Montaguti who showed interesting abilities during Tirreno-Adriatico (sixth on stage 4).
"We only have one victory but I would like to point out we built up confidence. The group became stronger from Tour Down Under with Domenico Pozzovivo and during Paris-Nice assisting Romain Bardet. Our team is working well even though there is no victory at the end. Our leaders must be at their best level now. We will surely know great success in the future.
"The upcoming Tour of Catalonia (March 21-27) has often been synonym of good results for us. This year we will race with a solid team. Then, we will be ready for the Classic races. We will ride the Cobbled Classics with a real fighting spirit. We also have great expectations concerning the three Ardennes Classics (Amstel Gold Race – La Fleche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège) and the Tour of Romandie. We are now turning into a time that should be favorable for us. That is why we truly desire to win at least one Classic race this season."
Team roster :
Gediminas BAGDONAS (Lit)
Jan BAKELANTS (Bel)
Axel DOMONT
Patrick GRETSCH (All)
Hugo HOULE (Can)
Mattéo MONTAGUTI (Ita)
Christophe RIBLON
Jesse SERGENT (NZL)
André VITAL 42 years | today |
Malcolm LANGE 51 years | today |
Michael VINK 33 years | today |
Evgeniy KRIVOSHEEV 36 years | today |
Shinpei FUKUDA 37 years | today |
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