CCC Sprandi Polkowice will repeat the late February and early March schedule from last year and will take part in three Belgian one-day events - Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (28.02), Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (1.03) and Le Samyn (4.03).
 

"We don’t have cobblestone specialists on our team but we want to make our presence known. We will try to get into breakaways and show ourselves in the best possible way to cycling fans," Piotr Wadecki, sporting director of CCC Sprandi Polkowice, says. "These are typical Belgian races and to finish them in the top you need not only good form but also some luck. Narrow roads make it impossible to help riders in case of a puncture or mechanical. Also the unpredictable weather may play a big role in the outcome of the race."

The 7-man “orange squad” will travel do Belgium. Grzegorz Stępniak is on the roster and he’s hoping to take advantage of his sprint skills in Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and Le Samyn which in previous years have ended with a bunch sprint. The other riders will try to attempt to breakaway.

All three races are around 200 kilometers long and all of them include cobblestone sections. Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (in East and West Flanders respectively) are held in the Flemish Region and Le Samyn in the Walloon Region. In terms of profile and pavement Omloop is similar to one of the classics, Ronde van Vlaanderen, with many short, but steep cobblestone hills. The route of Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne is not as demanding and the chances for sprinters are as good as typical cobbles specialists. The final part of Le Samyn runs on  21-kilometre circuit, which is relatively flat, but technical.

The weather may be a big factor in these events. They all have been cancelled at least once in the last 15 years, due to heavy snow.

Lineup of CCC Sprandi Polkowice for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (28.02), Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (1.03) and Le Samyn (4.03): 

Marek Rutkiewicz, Tomasz Kiendyś, Mateusz Taciak, Nikolay Mihaylov, Adrian Kurek, Grzegorz Stępniak, Jarosław Marycz.