The Belkin Pro Cycling Team will start the GP Impanis van Petegem on Sunday with last year’s winner, Sep Vanmarcke. He won in a sprint-a-deux with Pieter Weening of Orica-Green Edge in 2013 and hopes for more of the same this year, though the result is not the most important thing for the Belgian.

“This race is a preparation for the Worlds road race,” said Vanmarcke. “Hopefully it will be a hard race like last year. When I finish exhausted, the result is not very significant to me.”

Vanmarcke feels strong, though.

“I’m feeling better and better over these last few weeks. Hopefully, my shape is very good again at the end of September. The Worlds circuit is beautiful and in my eyes, I can do well there. In the GP Montreal, which was a harder course, I was up there for the finish.”

Frans Maassen knows the GP Impanis van Petegem could see a couple of different scenarios.

“We could well see a bunch sprint, but as we’ve experienced last year, it could end differently, as well. It depends on several aspects. Of course, there’s the weather and how the teams ride, whether they want to make it a hard race in the first hilly section. We’ll see how the race evolves and we’ll anticipate on it. We have several options for the win.”

Belkin line-up:

Jetse Bol, Theo Bos, Graeme Brown, Moreno Hofland, Barry Markus, Sep Vanmarcke and Maarten Wynants.