Deceuninck-QuickStep believes its new sprint signing Sam Bennett can target as many as three stages at the Tour Down Under which begins the week after next.
The team had already confirmed Bennett would ride the new one-day Race Torquay in Victoria on January 30th followed by the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong on February 2nd.
It made no
mention of the Tour Down Under when setting out just over one week ago
Bennett’s plans while in Australia.
However, as
expected it has now confirmed the Carrick-on-Suir sprinter will debut with the
team at Tour Down Under, from January 21st to 26th.
The Belgian WorldTour outfit also believes three of the six stages suit the fast men in the race and can be targeted by Bennett.
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The Irish cyclist has a fantastic lead-out to avail of including Shane Archbold, Iljo Keisse and Danish champion Michael Mørkøv.
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And the team’s
selection for the race is completed by João Almeida, Mattia Cattaneo and Dries
Devenyns.
“We are looking forward to starting the new season again at the Tour Down Under, where it is always a pleasure to be present, as it’s such a well organised race with amazing fans,” said sports director Rik Van Slycke.
“We go there with
a strong team and a motivated Sam Bennett, who will try to get his first
victory in the Deceuninck-QuickStep jersey.
“He’ll have
experienced men around him, so we are confident he can achieve this goal. We
can also think about getting a good GC result, but we’ll take it day by day,
see how things go and how our riders cope with the heat.”
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