Cannondale Drapac's Head Director Charlie Weglius is not certain that winning or doing well in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will be indicator of form going into the Flanders Classics season.
The Flanders Classics season starts with the mens 72nd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad which has World Tour status for 2017 and has attracted fifteen World Tour teams for the one-day race which starts and finishes in Ghent and features a 197km course that has thirteen climbs and ten sections of cobbles.
“The fans and the media are just so happy to get their fix. To get a bit of a cobbles ration. There’s advantages to it. But it’s a long way from that core period of April, late March, when the really big races are decided. Form wise I’m not sure if it teaches you anything,” said Wegelius,, who rode under a British licence in the Tour De France and Giro D'Italia, to his team's press office.
“On the other hand, even for experienced riders, there’s not that many days in
a year where they race on cobbles like that.
“Getting a
chance to do it once, there’s a real benefit in that. It’s important for us
this year because it’s a new group around a new leader. We’ve got a mix of
experienced riders like Sep, Sebastian, and to a degree even Dylan in terms of
riding on the cobblestones, with very green, inexperienced but nevertheless
strong riders like Bevin and Mullen and so on. And they’ve never really raced
with a super-strong leader before. And that changes the way you ride the race.
That weekend for us is an important step toward April.”
Article by Kev Monks for Digital Sports Group
Source: DSG
