Sylvain Chavanel will bring his career as an Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider to a close in tomorrow's final big classic, Paris-Tours. The Frenchman will share captaincy duties with Niki Terpstra and hopes to end his time with his current team on a high note.

Sylvain Chavanel has signed a contract with IAM Cycling for the 2014 season and will bring his time with his current team to a close in tomorrow's Paris-Tours. The Frenchman joined his Belgian squad in 2009 and has been one of its dominant riders during the last 5 years.

Chavanel decided not to ride the world championships as his form was not ready for a 270km race. Nonetheless, he feels confident that he will be able to play a role in tomorrow's classic despite never having achieved a top result in the race that often ends in a sprint.

“In this race I never had a lot of luck," he said."But to me this race is important because in 2000 it was the race that gave me visibility when I was young. I took a solo breakaway for 220km alone, with 33 minutes of a maximum gap, and I was caught 15km from the finish. The big cycling public discovered me that day, so it remains an important race for me."

"Last year I went into the breakaway and did a good race, but was not present in the final. This year I would like to be there in a key moment of the race. It is also my last race with the team and I would like to close my experience with this great team with a good performance. We had great years together and that is why I would like to leave with a great race. This week I trained well, even on the parcours of the race, so I am pretty confident in being a protragonist and being there in the final on Sunday."

Chavanel will be joined by Frantisek Rabon, Andrew Fenn, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Iljo Keisse, Martin Velits, Niki Terpstra and Pieter Serry on the Omega Pharma-Quick Step roster. Despite the presence of sprinter Fenn and fast guy Van Kerirsbulck, the team knows that it will be hard to win from a bunch sprint. Hence, they plan to race aggressively and has designated Chavanel and Terpstra as captains with Serry being a dangerous joker following his top 10 results in last week's Il Lombardia.

“This is a race where normally the riders who are motivated are able to do well," sports director Rik Van Slycke said. "In our team we have two leaders: Niki Terpstra and Sylvain Chavanel, who need no further explanation as to their skills. Terpstra was also third last year. But behind those two riders we have young guys like Pieter Serry and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck. They are different athletes with different skills, who can both try to get a result in different race scenarios. Van Keirsbulck can be there for the sprint and Serry can make a move before the finish. It is an opportunity for them and also the rest of the team who has to support them. We are looking forward to this race to do something good."

Tomorrow, you can follow the race on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview here.