The organizers of the 77th Gent-Wevelgem on Thursday awarded eight wildcards. Two Belgian teams, Wanty Groupe Gobert and Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, start the WorldTour event on March 29.

Besides these two Belgian teams are also the French sqauds Cofidis and Europcar. The other four teams get started right are the newly-formed Dutch team Roompot-Orange, the South African MTN Qhubeka team, the Germans Bora-Argon 18 and the Italian Southeast squad.

The race starts from the Deinze Market at 11:20. The riders will do a whopping 240 race kilometers before the traditional finish at the Wevelgemse Vanackerestraat.

Around 17:00 we know that the successor to the German John Degenkolb, who won last year in a mass sprint ahead of Frenchman Arnaud Démare and the Slovakian Peter Sagan, the winner of 2013. The best Belgian was Sep Vanmarcke fourth place.