Following the winter departure of several key riders including Fabio Jakobsen, Tim Declercq, and Rémi Cavagna, Soudal-QuickStep have unveiled their evolved Classics squad for the weekend's racing at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
Several familiar faces head up the Belgian team at Opening Weekend, with former Tour of Flanders champion and 2020 Kuurne winner Kasper Asgreen taking on both races. Julian Alaphilippe will also co-lead the team at the two races, making his debut at Kuurne.
Yves Lampaert, a perennial spring Classics contender, will race on both Saturday and Sunday, while Josef Cerny, Casper Pedersen and neo-pro Warre Vangheluwe are also in the line-up for both races.
Gianni Moscon, who joined the team from Astana Qazaqstan over the winter, will make his QuickStep Classics debut at Omloop, the fourth WorldTour race of the season. Luke Lamperti and Martin Svrcek also get the call-up at the weekend.
Asgreen, Alaphilippe, and Lampaert will be the names to watch for the Belgian squad at Omloop. At Kuurne, a race they've won nine times over the years, they'll be hoping for a hard race with no bunch sprint following the loss of 2022 champion Jakobsen. The star trio should again be the co-leaders, while Lamperti figures to be their fastest finisher.
"We are excited about the upcoming weekend, at the start of which we'll go with a strong squad and a lot of confidence and determination," said Soudal-QuickStep directeur sportif Wilfred Peeters.
"Most of the guys did a good altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada and will now resume competition, and five of our guys will do both races. We can't say these races have any more secrets, it will be mostly about finding out where we are at this moment.
"For Omloop, we have a couple of riders who could get a good result, while for Kuurne, if it comes down to a bunch sprint, we'll be curious to see what Luke can do."
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