Team LottoNL-Jumbo is targeting the top three during the first Flemish World Tour classic on Friday. Sep Vanmarcke dashed to fourth in last year’s E3 Harelbeke, and hopes to do even better this year.
 
“It’s going to be the first real clash with the best riders on the cobblestones”, sports director Nico Verhoeven explains. “We are looking forward to Sep Vanmarcke’s performance with curiosity. We’re talking about the highest level, at the moment. We will try to do better than last year. Sep is our main gun for that. He has to do the job.” 

Vanmarcke prepared himself in Tirreno-Adriatico after a strong opening weekend and a great performance in Strade Bianche in Italy.

“Tirreno didn’t go so well for him”, Verhoeven says. “He had a hard time there. After that race, he did a good training camp. He rediscovered his good feeling for the classics during those training sessions. At the moment, he is at the level he should be.”
 

“The reason for the fact that I didn’t feel great in Tirreno was due to some physical problems”, Vanmarcke explains. “I was a little bit ill and that manifested itself in some aches. Fortunately, that illness didn’t worsen. I conquered it, and found my good feeling. I had to survive Tirreno to return in my best shape back home. I wasn’t really doubtful about my form, anyway. I knew I was in perfect condition. My performance in Strade Bianche proved that.”
 
The strong Belgian knows that everything has to come together to win in Harelbeke.

“I need to have a very good day, and a little bit of luck. I fear that if there will not be a big crash like last year, a lot of riders will be able to survive the hill section. We have to set a high pace to prevent that. If you want to win, the peloton has to fall back in pieces.”
 

Verhoeven knows what to do when you want to have chance to win E3 Harelbeke.

“The main point is always in the final”, he says. “The recent past showed that there are always a few riders who are able to escape. If you want to win, you have to be with those riders. We have to make sure that we’re not getting ourselves in a defensive position in the end. Sep or someone else has to be with the leaders.”

 
Team line-up:
Jos van Emden, Rick Flens, Tom Leezer, Bram Tankink, Maarten Tjallingii, Sep Vanmarcke, Robert Wagner and Maarten Wynants.

NOTE: Since the announcement of the roster, Jos van Emden has suffered an injury in the Dwars door Vlaanderen and is likely to be replaced.