Sylvain Chavanel to lead Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step at the Tour of Oman 2012
After a successful finish to the Tour of Qatar, Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step has announced its combination for the Tour of Oman 2012.
Tour of Oman is scheduled on the 14th of February and Sylvain Chavanel will lead the Belgian team at the 2012 edition of the six-stage event.
Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step had a terrific start to its 2012 campaign and is currently leading the team’s classifications with a total number of ten victories in the young season.
Levi Leipheimer won two stages and the overall classification at the Tour de San Luis 2012 and helped the team with its first overall victory of the season. Francesco Chicchi and Tom Boonen also claimed two stages each at the Argentinean race.
Tom Boonen claimed the overall victory at the Tour of Qatar 2012 including the first and the fourth stages in his pocket.
Andrew Fenn took the overall win at the Trofeo Palma and Trofeo Migjorn to help the team with a perfect start to the new season.
Wilfried Peeters is the team’s sports director and he could not be happier, "After our lucky spell in Qatar we're going to try to do well in Oman, too," he said.
He admired the tremendous performance by Gert Steegmans which helped Boonen with the overall victory at the Tour of Qatar.
Peeters briefed, "For the finishes adapted to sprinters, we're going to call on Steegmans. Gert was a fundamental pillar for Boonen's victory in Qatar; now it will be his turn to try and win a stage”.
On commenting about the French cyclist, Wilfried explained that Chavanel is very much capable of helping the team with the overall win at the Tour of Oman.
He also revealed that Peter Velits will ride along Sylvain, which is a bit surprising as the two riders had not raced together in the past.
The 32-year-old joined the Belgian team in 2009 and secured a number of wins during his stay with the side.
He won two stages at the Tour de France 2010 and held the yellow jersey for six consecutive stages, stage 2-7.
It will be interesting to see if Chavanel can live up to the expectations of his team’s sports director who has high hopes from the current French National Road Race Champion.
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