Slagter and Mollema aim for GC in Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Blanco Pro Cycling Team will be looking to consolidate Tom-Jelte Slagter’s lead in the WorldTour rankings as the Tirreno-Adriatico kicks off on Wednesday. Besides Slagter, the Blanco team will take to the start with the following riders: Bram Tankink, Lars Boom, Paul Martens, Bauke Mollema, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Sep Vanmarcke and Maarten Wynants.

“We will start with WorldTour leader Tom-Jelte Slagter in our team,” says sports director Nico Verhoeven. “This young rider is on track for a great start of the season. There are several possibilities to finish it off in the difficult uphill stages.”

Should Slagter fail to deliver, Bauke Mollema will be the team’s next trump, “Normally Bauke Mollema is our guy for the general classification. He has shown his early season form in the Ruta del Sol and Murcia. We have a strong team surrounding these guys with unlimited support. We aim for several stage wins, although our main focus will be the general classification.”