The upcoming 4 races will not only serve as a warm-up for the second Monument of the season (the Tour of Flanders), but will also be an opportunity to add another good result to our 2024 tally. Last year Matej Mohoric and Andrea Pasqualon scored top 10 results at E3 and Dwars respectively, and this year we are aiming for even better.
The first race is the Classic Brugge – De Panne: 201 completely flat kilometres. The route is very similar to last year and hits the North Sea coastal town of Nieuwpoort after 40km. Rain, and especially high winds, could break the race into echelons from that point on since the race stays very close to the shore.
From all flats we go to almost no flat at all at E3 Saxo, which is the best warm-up for Flanders with a lot of the paved “bergs” that feature in the second monument. This race is for “puncheurs” so expect a lot of early splits in the peloton, with multiple attacks on the hills that are a constant throughout the parcours.
After a day’s rest the team will start Gent – Wevelgem: the longest cobbled classic of this set at 252km. The first half is flat while in the second half, riders will face rolling hills where the classics specialists will try to drop the sprinters. There are some gravel sectors thrown into the mix to make the race more interesting, but the outcome will most likely be a reduced bunch sprint.
The last (and the shortest) of this block is Dwars door Vlaanderen, at 188km. A combination of small hills and cobbled sectors will challenge the peloton, with the toughest sectors all coming in the last 71km where attacks will be launched.
Our Sports Director Enrico Poitschke analysed all 4 races: “First we start with Brugge – De Panne, which should be a race for the sprinters, but last year we saw that when weather conditions are extreme with wind and rain it becomes a hard race. At the moment the weather forecast looks good for Wednesday and from that side we have a lineup that will support Phil Bauhaus. We saw Phil is in good condition and we’ll try to bring him into a very good position for his sprint. Everything is possible, but our goal is top 5. Our team has a lot of experience that will be needed at this race. It’s Łukasz Wisniowski’s first race for our team, and he has shown in past years that he’s very motivated for Classics, so we hope he’ll be a good support to our guys in the crosswind situations and also in the preparation for the sprint, to be a lead out together with Govekar, Rajovic, and Bruttomesso who showed in the smaller races that he’s already on the top level and now starting for the first time a World Tour race.” Poitschke continued to talk about E3 Saxo: “This race is in its character completely different from De Penne. It is a very hard race, one of the hardest of the Classics. We have a clear leader in Matej Mohoric. He’s in very good shape, he did very strong races at the beginning of the season including last weekend’s Milano – Sanremo. The whole team will support Matej, but we also have Fred Wright who can help in the final or follow some early moves.”
2 days later on Sunday 24th is Gent – Wevelegem: “The race is very good for Matej, as he showed in last few years that he’s ready to fight for the win there. The whole team will support him. This race will also depend on the weather conditions to determine how hard that race is.” After this race riders have a two-day break before they start Dwars door Vlaanderen: “Matej and Fred will take a break before the Tour of Flanders. We’ll see in the upcoming races who’s in good shape and we’ll give guys from “the second row” a chance for result at this race.” concluded Poitschke.
