Two days before the Tour of Switzerland, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux will be at another Swiss race by participating to the Grosser Preis des Kantons Aargau (1.1) for the ninth time this Friday.
A circuit of 21 kilometer around Leuggern has to be covered seven times, with each lap containing the Rotberg (7km at 3.8%). A downhill of 11 kilometer, interrupted by a hill of 500 meter, brings the riders to the finish.
Alexander Kristoff and his lead out Andrea Pasqualon will be reunited for the first time since Paris-Roubaix, after a period during which both men were victorious in the Tour of Norway and the Circuit de Wallonie respectively.
The Norwegian rider won the classic at each of his three latest participations (2015, 2018, 2019), accompanied on the podium by Andrea Pasqualon in 2019 (2nd). The Italian rider was also second in 2016 and finished two other times in the top ten (6th in 2018, 8th in 2021).
Both men will race under the direction of Pieter Vanspeybrouck, accompanied by Barnabás Peák, Simone Petilli, Baptiste Planckaert (6th in 2017), Lorenzo Rota and Georg Zimmermann.
« Alexander Kristoff and I battled several times for the victory in Leuggern the last couple of years, and Alexander won the race each time. Next Friday, we'll join forces. We're a good team and together with our other teammates we achieved a nice series of results. Think about the victory of Alexander in Almeria and his other sprint results, or a series of top ten finishes in the most prestigious classics. » « The parcours is more challenging than the previous years, because never before we had to cover the Rotberg so many times. We'll have to take the plans of the other teams into account. It is possible that attempts on the penultimate or final passage on the climb are successful, which would be an ideal scenario for Lorenzo Rota or Georg Zimmermann. In case of a sprint, Alexander or I can show our fast legs. We both showed our good form by winning recently and I know that he's willing to sacrifice for me if the race circumstances suit me better. » « Immediately after my victory in the Circuit de Wallonie, I returned to Andorra to extend the team's altitude training camp with Taco van der Hoorn. I climbed a lot in training, so I expect to feel good uphill in my next races. The upcoming period is important for me, starting with this Friday and the Tour de Suisse, so I really wanted to prepare well. »
