Omega Pharma – Quick Step Cycling Team is ready for Tour de San Luis, the brief 1030.8km Argentine stage race that will take place from January 20th to the 26th. Despite only seven days of racing, there are opportunities for all the specialists including flat stages, mountain stages, and a 19.2km individual time trial. The most difficult stages that may determine the GC are four and six, as they both include Category 1 summit finishes. Stage one looks to strongly favor the bunch sprint.
For team OPQS this will be the third time they've participated in a race that has always brought great satisfaction to the team lead by Patrick Lefevere. OPQS will be lining up at the starting grid with high caliber athletes like Mark Cavendish, who just last year achieved his first success wearing the OPQS jersey in Argentina, and Tom Boonen, who already won at the Tour de San Luis in his golden year, 2012, and who is looking forward to returning to racing after a long stop period.
"I think it's a good race to start the season," Cavendish said. "Last year I raced here for the first time and I enjoyed it. People are very friendly, the race is nice and with a good and balanced parcours. We are here with a strong team to try to get good results and having a good start of the season."
Next to them we'll have the experience of Alessandro Petacchi, the solidness of Stijn Vandenbergh, and the youth and determination of Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Gianluca Brambilla. The power of Boonen, Cavendish, and Petacchi together means the sprint train will be a very formidable one.
"My feeling is good and I'm ready to start racing again," Boonen said. "It's been a long time without competition and I'm really looking forward to this race. it's not a secret that we have a good team for the sprint and we will try to do our best in the stages that suit the sprinters."