Lotto Soudal have announced their line-up for Scheldeprijs.

On Wednesday 6 April 2016 the 104th edition of the Scheldeprijs is scheduled. The unofficial ‘World Championship of the sprinters’ is the oldest surviving cycling race in Flanders. The course didn’t change a lot, only the final road to the finish line is shortened with 800 metres. Besides that, a few other measures were taken such as reducing the number of participants. The organization made this decisions to ensure the safety of the riders.

Sports director Frederik Willems said: “It’s a wise decision to shorten the finishing straigjt because this race most likely ends with a bunch sprint. In that way it will become less easy to gain places so the positioning will be more important. The organization also decided to reduce the amount of riders, that’s not a bad thing. During the past few races it was clear that several crashes occurred without a specific cause. Maybe crashes can be avoided due to this measure, although a bunch sprint is always dangerous.”

The peloton will start in the centre of Antwerp just as every year. After that the peloton will ride a big lap through the region. At about 50 kilometres from the finish, the riders will cover three local laps of a bit more than sixteen kilometres. Most likely the peloton will prepare itself for a bunch sprint in these laps. The finish line is situated after almost 208 kilometres in Schoten.

Frederik Willems saiid: “This year, the organization chose to ride more on smaller roads. Therefore it will be more important to obtain a good position at the front of the peloton before entering the final part towards the finish line. In my opinion, the race will certainly end with a bunch sprint this year. It happened in the past that a small group fought for the victory or that a rider finished solo. But that was mainly due to bad weather conditions. If there’s a lot of wind and rain a real bunch sprint can be avoided. The forecast for Wednesday is not so bad so it definitely will be a bunch sprint.”

André Greipel is the leader for Lotto Soudal, the team will give their all to support the German as well as they can. The main competitors for the victory will be riders such as Marcel Kittel, Elia Viviani, Mark Cavendish and Alexander Kristoff.

Frederik Willems said: “André had some troubles to restart after his rib fracture. He came back in competition in Gent-Wevelgem, that’s a very hard race to start with. It’s difficult to obtain a nice result in this race. During the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde he felt better and better, unfortunately he wasn’t able to sprint due to circumstances. Last Sunday (during the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, ed.), André made a great impression and it was clear that he could accelerate. That’s very positive regarding to Wednesday. Also Marcel Sieberg rode a strong race, he’s the main lead-out of Greipel so that’s a good thing as well. Of course, André wants to win a race again. He never managed to win the Scheldeprijs though. It won’t be easy against riders such as Kittel and Viviani, but when he’s in good form, he’s always able to obtain the victory in such races.”

Line-up Lotto Soudal: 

Lars Bak, Kris Boeckmans, Sean De Bie, Jasper De Buyst, Frederik Frison, André Greipel, Marcel Sieberg and Jelle Wallays.