Because of the change of date from September to June for the Brussels Cycling Classic, a long weekend of racing awaits Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux in Belgium. Fourteen riders will represent the World Team during this Pentecost weekend in the Heistse Pijl on Saturday, the Brussels Cycling Classic on Sunday and the Ronde van Limburg on Monday.
From the start the Heistse Pijl (1.1) in Vosselaar, the peloton will race in the heart of the Antwerp province following the same parcours as in 2021. Six local laps have to be accomplished, each of them containing the small and cobbled Heistseberg with its top 1 kilometer before the finish line. Although it is the only difficulty on paper, a bunch sprint was avoided last year and Boy van Poppel finished seventh.
The Dutchman, who played a crucial role in the five podium finishes of Gerben Thijssen in May, returns to the race accompanied by Sven Erik Bystrøm, Tom Devriendt, Baptiste Planckaert, Thijssen, Corné van Kessel (4th in 2017) and Kévin Van Melsen.
« The new date of the Brussels Cycling Classic on the calendar guarantees a strong field of participants in all three races this weekend. We chose to select fourteen riders in order to be able to battle for the victory each day. Most of the teams will send a selection with riders capable of controlling the race in function of a bunch sprint, although we know by experience that the parcours offers the possibility to escape a bunch sprint. » « In Heist, each passage on the Heistseberg stretches the peloton before the finish line, so gaps have to be anticipated. On the one hand, we have Baptiste Planckaert in our line up who can race attentively and follow the race movements. On the other, we have a team around Gerben Thijssen, which will make sure that we are well positioned before the cobble climb. The last couple of weeks it was nice to see how the riders survived the selection as a team. Especially the riders selected for the race on Saturday raced together very often and developed strong automatisms. » « In Limburg, the course is harder thanks tho the countless small roads and hills. Quinten Hermans and Taco van der Hoorn will be free to race aggressively. Adrien Petit reinforces the sprint train of Gerben Thijssen, who achieved a nice series of results the last couple of weeks.His progression since the start of the season especially accelerated in the Dunkirk Four Day. We managed to create a solid team around him and we spend time together after each race for analysis as Gerben takes each remark into account in his following races. »
