Team Giant-Alpecin lines up this Saturday at the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia in Spain, a tough, up and down one-day race in the south of the country.

John Degenkolb continues his season here after taking an impressive stage win at the Dubai Tour, and he is joined by several climbers and all-rounders from the team including Caleb Fairly (USA) who will start his first race in a Team Giant-Alpecin jersey here in Spain.

"Murcia looks like it will be a tough course and the race situation may have an impact on whether John can make it over the final climb within reaching distance of the leaders," explained coach Christian Guiberteau. "It will be a course where we look to race on the front foot and go for the breaks from early on so we don't have to take responsibility.

"In this early season phase it is always important to work on getting the autonomy of teamwork back into the head and this is also an important goal for this race. It will also be a good test for Daan [Olivier] on the climbs to see where he is at after his preparation over the past months."

LINE-UP
John Degenkolb (GER)
Caleb Fairly (USA)
Johannes Fröhlinger (GER)
Chad Haga (USA)
Thierry Hupond (FRA)
Tobias Ludvigsson (SWE)
Daan Olivier (NED)