The Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg starts on Wednesday with a short prologue of 2.7km that will be ideal for the punchers. Four hilly stages follow to finish in Luxembourg city on Sunday.

Following a 5th place in the GC with Tom Dumoulin and two years of absence, Team Giant-Alpecin is participating again in the Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg this year and aims for stage success with its sprinters Ramon Sinkeldam (NED) and Zico Waeytens (BEL), who showed their fast legs in yesterday's Garmin Velothon Berlin with a win for Sinkeldam and a third place for Waeytens. Both riders will be supported by a strong team which is good on hilly courses, led by experienced team captain Roy Curvers (NED).

For climbers Georg Preidler (AUT), who had a strong classics campaign, and Carter Jones (USA), who performed strongly in the queen stage at the Amgen Tour of California, it will be an opportunity to check their form on the hilly stages. Johannes Fröhlinger (GER) and Lars van der Haar (NED) will play important support roles, although the latter suffered a shoulder injury from a crash at last week's World Ports Classic, and the team hopes he will be ready for the race on time.

“With Sinkeldam and Waeytens we have two fast riders who will use their abilities in the stages that end in a bunch sprint, and we need to exploit those opportunities as we aim for stage success in Luxembourg. Curvers will have an important role in coordinating the sprint preparation.

"For the guys who are returning to competition after a period of training, we will wait and see how their shape is. Preidler and Carter are normally the guys that are good up hill so I am really curious how they will endure in the difficult stages,” said coach Addy Engels (NED).