Bahrain Victorious continues the Flemish Classics campaign with the next WorldTour race in Flanders: the 64th E3 Saxo Bank Classic on Friday, 25th March.
The event is also known as the mini “Ronde van Vlaanderen” as the route features several climbs that the peloton will also face in the upcoming Monument Tour of Flanders.

Starting and finishing in Harelbeke, over the 203.9km course, the riders will shoot 17 hills (hellingen); among them are the famous Kapelberg, Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont, with the Tiegemberg as the last one, at 183.9km before the fast final towards the flat finish.

Fresh off the back of his Milano-Sanremo win, Matej Mohorič will lead the team, and he will look for a good result and test himself ahead of the Tour of Flanders.

Michal Golas, Bahrain Victorious Sports Director: “We traditionally consider the E3 a mini Flanders, but I’d not say it’s only a rehearsal or a warming up of that Monument. It is an important race in itself, and there are several strong contenders at the start looking forward to winning it. We will try to be among the best tomorrow as we have our leader Matej in excellent shape and also very motivated. Our co-leader will be Fred Wright, and our mission is to be competitive in the final, where we’re expecting a small leading group will fight for the win. We want other riders to support them at best, in each phase of the race, with Jonathan Milan and Kamil Gradek helpers in the first part and for the lead out in the key sectors of the race.

In such a demanding course, where roads are narrow, twisting and cobbled, good positioning will be crucial. We will also have an added value as the great experience of our road captain Heinrich Haussler to organize the team throughout the day. Filip Maciejuk and Yukiya Arashiro will be ready to help as well. We will be looking forward to this race to assess the overall condition not only of our riders but of other rival teams as well, a week before De Ronde”.