MTN-Qhubeka heads into a weekend of very versatile racing when they line up in Saturday's Tour du Finistere and Sunday's Tro-Bro Leon. On Saturday, the team aims for a good result with Kristian Sbaragli in the Breton hills while Ignatas Konovalovas and Jaco Venter chase success one day later on the famous gravel roads in the Breton Paris-Roubaix.

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung are looking forward to a weekend of French racing when they lineup at the Tour du Finistere on Saturday and the Tro-Bro Leon on Sunday. Both races are held in the region of Finistere and each carry a UCI 1.1 ranking.

The Tour du Finistere is a 193km race over an undulating course. With 2 challenging climbs on route and 4 laps of a tough finishing circuit, the race victor will certainly need to have a strong pair of climbing legs. That being said, the race still suits your punchers over pure climbers as the smaller sized sprinters are generally able to make it to the finale. This race in particular should suit the in-form Italian, Kristian Sbaragli.

The Tro-Bro Leon on the other hand is often called the Le Petit Paris-Roubaix as the 203km route features 25 dirt road sections. Last year the cold and wet weather made for an extremely exciting race where Jaco Venter from Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung rode strongly in the breakaway, no doubt using his mountain biking background to his advantage.

The race is rather unpredictably but usually ends up being a race of attrition as opposed to one of outright tactics. This could suit Ignatas Konovalovas and Jaco Venter from Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung as  both riders had shown good strength throughout this year's spring classics.

The Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung squad for the weekends racing will be made up by Kristian Sbaragli, Ignatas Konovalovas, Jaco Venter, Bradley Potgieter, Martin Wesemann and Youcef Reguigui.

"The race of tomorrow is consistently up and down and that will make for a hard race," Directeur Sportif Manel Lacambra said. "The final steep part before the sprint usually makes a big selection, just like 3 days a go. Kristian showed then that he has good legs and we will try to have a good result with him.

"Sunday is also a hard race and very technical with the dirt roads. Last year Jaco had a good performance here but we also have Ignas here who showed good performances in the last classics. Together with Kristian we will try to get a good result for the team."

"I havent had the best legs these past two races so I’m hoping I feel better this weekend," Venter said. "I really like Sunday's race, all the dirt road sections remind me of my mountain biking days so I’m hoping to do well there."