Tpdau Lotto Soudal riders Sander Armée, Sean De Bie, Thomas De Gendt and Frederik Frison will participate in the Belgian National Time Trial Championships in Mol-Postel. Last year Mol-Postel hosted the Time Trial Championships as well and Frederik Frison won the title in the elite without contract category. This year he takes the start as a pro.

“The fact that I won the elite without contract race in Mol-Postel last year gives me an extra boost, just like the fact that it is close to home, so many people will come to support me," he said. "On the other hand this is the first time I ride the Nationals as a pro and it’s more difficult to estimate where I can end up. At the moment I can’t compare myself to the others, because this year I have only ridden some shorter time trials. Anyway, I will go full gas tomorrow and I’ll see where that takes me.”

At about half past four Frison will begin the 34-kilometre long time trial. Last year he had to cover 24.4 kilometres as an elite without contract, so for him the time trial is almost ten kilometres longer than last year, but in 2015 the pros had to ride 49 kilometres.

“It’s an advantage that I can ride ten kilometres more now: the bigger the distance, the more the pure time trialists can use their capacities," he said. "For me it might have been 49 kilometres for the pros this year as well. Despite the distance, you can’t start too slow though. You almost immediately have to get into the right rhythm and get close to your limit, over that distance you should be able to keep that up.

"The course is flat and not technical at all, the turns are easy to take. There are many straight parts and that’s an advantage for a rider like me. There could be rain and thunderstorms tomorrow. The rain doesn’t scare me, but I do hope that the conditions are the same for everyone. If that is the case, then I don’t expect the differences at the top of the ranking to be too big and several riders could battle for the podium. I definitely expect that my teammate Sean De Bie, Victor Campenaerts, Yves Lampaert and Sep Vanmarcke will finish on a high position.”