Etixx-QuickStep have announced their line-up for Milan-Sanremo.

13 years after making his debut in “La Classicissima”, Tom Boonen will return at the start of the race which saw him finish twice on the podium (2007 and 2010), this year’s Milan-Sanremo marking the 37th career start in a Monument for the former world champion. Joining him will be Gianluca Brambilla, neo-pro Fernando Gaviria, Fabio Sabatini, Zdenek Stybar, Matteo Trentin, Stijn Vandenbergh and Julien Vermote, thus giving Etixx – Quick-Step an all-rounded team for the Italian event. 

“Milan-Sanremo is the first big one-day race of the year, and also the longest and most difficult to win. The parcours is the classic one, but it still is a lottery, the final being always tough to predict. There are many contenders for the victory, riders who’ve shown in France and Italy that they are in very good form. I’m thinking here of Michael Matthews, Alexander Kristoff, Fabian Cancellara, Greg Van Avermaet, Peter Sagan or Edvald Boasson Hagen”, said sport director Davide Bramati, before talking of the team’s approach to the maiden Monument of the season: “We have a great group of riders, who came out of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in good condition and ready to face this 300-km long event. We are not the favourites for the win, but we’ll see what we can do depending on how things will go, and you can be sure of the fact that we will play a role during the race. Our main goal is to be there and get the maximum out of it.”