Omega Pharma-Quick Step has announced the selection that will take part in Tour de Picardie, a 532 km race from May 10th to May 12th. Though the three stages feature at least one mountain pass, they all have flat final km, leaving the possibility for group arrivals.

OPQS rider Tom Boonen has had a change made to his program, racing Tour de Picardie instead of AMGEN Tour of California.

"My crash at Ronde van Vlaanderen was quite serious and it took a while to recover," Boonen said. "I still have pain on my hip and my back, but day-by-day the situation is getting better, and I can train regularly. The fact is that Tour of California is a great race, but it is longer and you have to be fit for this reason, as well as the challenging parcours."

The Tour de Picardie also allows Boonen more time to develop his fitness after the race.

"Tom started training with the right intensity only in the last two weeks," Sport Director Wilfried Peeters said. "We consider this the best way to get Tom into the race rhythm and give him a few more days to tune up his condition after the short French stage race. The rest of Tom's program will be defined in the upcoming days."

Omega Pharma-Quick Step line-up for Tour de Picardie:

Tom Boonen, Andrew Fenn, Nikolas Maes, Frantisek Rabon, Niki Terpstra, Kristof Vandewalle and Martin Velits.