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The Olympic Video games in Paris may nonetheless be 242 days away however Belgium has already named Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Jasper Philipsen as key riders on their lengthy checklist for the highway occasions.
Nationwide coach Sven Vanthourenhout named the 15-rider lengthy staff at a press occasion on Monday.
Belgium has certified 4 locations for the elite males’s highway race, the utmost beneath the brand new quota system for a diminished 90-man peloton. Two of these riders – most probably Van Aert and Evenepoel – will participate within the particular person time trial.
“Now we have already spoken to their administration,” Vanthourenhout stated of the pair. “Each have indicated that they wish to put together for the Olympic time trial.”
Van Aert has opted to race the Giro d’Italia and a diminished Classics marketing campaign earlier than the Olympics, whereas Evenepoel is because of race Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de France earlier than Paris.
Competitors for the remaining two locations for the lads’s highway occasions can be fierce, and Vanthourenhout stated the checklist can be diminished after which finalised within the days earlier than the Tour de France.
The naming of the lengthy staff could seem untimely, however groups are starting to make plans for riders’ 2024 seasons and must construction their calendars across the Olympics.
“Discussions are deliberate with groups and riders within the coming weeks after which we’ll determine whether or not we’ll go to Paris with 4 potential medal candidates or with Wout and Remco and two domestiques,” Vanthourenhout stated.
One of many potential medal candidates may very well be Jasper Philipsen, who proved he’s greater than only a sprinter with a second place in April at Paris-Roubaix behind Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Mathieu van der Poel.
Vanthourenhout gave his impressions on the 273km course, which incorporates 2,800 metres of climbing throughout 13 named ascents, with the cobbled Côte de la butte Montmartre on every of the three,18.4km ending circuits.
“It would definitely be a really attention-grabbing and atypical race, with a area of 90 riders for a race of greater than 270 kilometers. Twenty riders can, so to talk, draw back after three turns and the race might be completed,” Vanthourenhout predicted.
“I would not evaluate the course to that of the World Championships in Glasgow, however the feeling would be the identical.”
The staff has but to be named for the ladies’s highway occasions, apart from World Champion Lotte Kopecky as the apparent chief.
Kopecky intends to mix the highway and observe as she did with success in Glasgow, discovering the chance to have a number of possibilities at a medal advantageous.
“Many riders solely have one likelihood. It must be a giant success for them right away. I definitely have two or three possibilities. I’m additionally used to the mixture of the highway and the observe. So I’m aiming for a number of objectives,” she stated.
She could must put her Madison plans on maintain, with companion Shari Bossuyt provisionally suspended for a doping constructive. If Bossuyt cannot compete, Kopecky stated the Madison is perhaps the primary to go from her schedule.
“We should determine for ourselves whether or not it is going to be worthwhile to take part within the self-discipline. If one thing have been to be deleted, it might in all probability be the Madison.”
Belgium’s 2024 Olympics males’s long-list
- Wout van Aert
- Tiesj Benoot
- Victor Campenaerts
- Jasper De Buyst
- Tim Declercq
- Arnaud De Lie
- Remco Evenepoel
- Frederik Frison
- Quinten Hermans
- Yves Lampaert
- Jasper Philipsen
- Alec Segaert
- Jasper Stuyven
- Edward Theuns
- Florian Vermeersch
- Tim Wellens
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