Etixx - Quick-Step has announced the selection that will participate in Milano-Sanremo, the 293km Italian Monument, which takes place on Sunday, March 22nd. The 2015 edition includes a finale in Via Roma, which hadn't been featured in the race since 2007 and replaces a seaside finale. The Capi, Cipressa, and Poggio are the final climbs before the Via Roma arrival.

Weather has been a factor in Milano-Sanremo in the past few years, with sprinters winning the race in five of the past six editions including Mark Cavendish in 2009, in his first career participation. Cavendish is among the Etixx - Quick-Step riders who will be at the start, along with Zdenek Stybar, who just won Strade Bianche, and UCI World Road Champion Michal Kwiatkowski, who finished 2nd in the Paris-Nice overall last Sunday. Stijn Vandenbergh, Julien Vermote, and Michal Golas will be key supporting riders after doing great work in the recent races on the front of the peloton. Mark Renshaw and Fabio Sabatini, two of the top leadout riders on Etixx - Quick-Step, will also participate.

“As every year Milano-Sanremo is the first great one day race of the season," Sport and Development manager Rolf Aldag said. "It’s a race with a great history, one of the five Monuments in cycling. A team who values tradition like we do, it’s always motivating for a race like this even if this time we are not the biggest favorite. Our strength is that we have so many riders at a high level. We cannot hide that we have talent on our team and that we can be protagonists in each race situation, from 'I Capi' until the finish in Via Roma. We have guys like Stybar that can fire up the race, Kwiatkowski, who showed all his talent at Paris Nice, and Mark Cavendish, that from our group is the only one who has already won 'La Primavera.'

"But Milano-Sanremo is an unpredictable race," Aldag continued. "That’s what makes it special. At the start at least 100 riders dream about a victory in Via Roma. Also the weather conditions can drastically change the race. The objective in these days before the race is to recover as much as we can from the hard race we had in Paris-Nice and from a few days of bad weather at Tirreno-Adriatico. Especially Mark Cavendish, who was not 100 percent going into Tirreno because of a stomach virus. He will benefit from these days for a good recovery. The team is ready, and we look forward to next Sunday.”