Team Giant-Shimano will line up at the Criterium du Dauphiné with a young team looking for opportunities. Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg and Nikias Arndt will focus on the sprints while youngster Daan Olivier will try to excel in the mountains.

The WorldTour stage race action continues this week with the Critérium du Dauphiné in France.

This race is often regarded as the classic Tour de France warm up and it offers up different opportunities for Team Giant-Shimano who come into this race with a relatively young line-up.

The eight stage race gets underway this Sunday with a 10km individual time trial after which the first yellow jersey of the race. The first mountain finish follows on stage two before a variety of opportunities for the team over the week.

For the sprint opportunities, Team Giant-Shimano have Nikias Arndt and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg both of whom showed strong form at last week's Bayern Rundfahrt.

Other young riders include Thomas Damuseau - winner of the King of the Mountains classification here in 2013 - Chad Haga and Daan Olivier  who all showed strong form in the Tour of California recently.

The line-up is then completed with the experience of Dries Devenyns, Johannes Fröhlinger and Thierry Hupond.

"The Dauphiné provides some of the young riders on the team with the opportunity to race a fantastic race at the highest level here in Europe," said Christian Guiberteau, Team Giant-Shimano coach.

"For the race we have chances for results in the sprints with both Nikias and Reinardt, and after that the goal will be to go on the offensive with the others. We will also see how Daan is going in the mountains. Hopefully we will have a strong week and come away having learned a lot and also with some nice results."

Giant-Shimano for Criterium du Dauphiné:
Nikias Arndt (GER)
Thomas Damuseau (FRA)
Dries Devenyns (BEL)
Johannes Fröhlinger (GER)
Chad Haga (USA)
Thierry Hupond (FRA)
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (RSA)
Daan Olivier (NED)

Ronde van Zeeland

This is a race that the team have performed well at over the past few years with the victory usually being fought out in a sprint, but often after crosswinds have influenced the composition of the front group. In 2011 it was Marcel Kittel who won here, and last year Ramon Sinkeldam finished second.

Sinkeldam returns this year in search of making up just one place on last year's result and he will be full of confidence heading into this one-day race after his first win of the season recently on the final stage of the World Ports Classic.

He is joined by Bert De Backer and Tom Veelers who both head into the race having just finished the Giro d'Italia. The line-up is then completed by Brian Bulgac, road captain Roy Curvers and the ever improving Sea Keong Loh.

"This is a really nice Dutch race but is typical of racing here in Holland with a big possibility of crosswinds," said Team Giant-Shimano coach Rudi Kemna.

"We have a good team for this with experience and strength for a sprint at the end. Ramon has showed his sprinting capacity over the past few weeks and he is well supported by a strong team here."

Giant-Shimano for Ronde van Zeeland Seaports:

Bert De Backer (BEL)
Brian Bulgac (NED)
Roy Curvers (NED)
Sea Keong Loh (MAL)
Ramon Sinkeldam (NED)
Tom Veelers (NED)