Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep announced its final squad for the Tour de France 2012
All the top cycling teams are busy finalising their best squads for the most awaited cycling event of the year, the Tour de France.
Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step has also joined the party by naming their strong nine-man squad for the coming event.
The Belgian team is having an outstanding season and currently holds the fourth overall position after the UCI World Tour Team’s rankings.
The team has bagged 640 important UCI points with the main contributions coming through Tom Boonen (366 points), Niki Terpstra (90), Levi Leipheimer (75), Tony Martin (57) and Dario Cataldo helping the side with 52 crucial points.
Team Sky is leading the category with 803 UCI points with Team Katusha and Team Liquigas-Cannondale holding the second and the third positions respectively.
Tour de France 2012 include as many as a hundred kilometres of time trialling involved and Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step is
Team Manager Patrick Lefevere briefed that Tony Martin and Levi Leipheimer will be his key men for the time trials
“In the time trials we can count on Levi and the undeniable skills of Tony Martin,” said Lefevere.
“For the individual stages we will have high-calibre athletes like Sylvain Chavanel, a natural attacker, as well as Dries Devenyns”.
“We will also see Jerome Pineau at the start line, an athlete who really knows how to play his cards, as well as how to be a perfect team player when the occasion calls for it”.
“Overall, the formation is well balanced and they will be able to stand out in the individual stages as well as in the general classification”.
Team’s most successful cyclist, Tom Boonen has announced to ride the Tour de Pologne and will forgo the Tour de France.
Jerome Pineau and Sylvain Chavanel will help the team leader with their sprinting abilities and the duo will also be given chance to go for the stage wins.
Boonen is more focussed towards riding the 2012 Olympic Games and it is very difficult to perform at the Olympics after a tiring three-week of racing in France.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep team for the Tour de France include, Sylvain Chavanel, Kevin De Weert, Dries Devenyns, Bert Grabsch, Levi Leipheimer, Tony Martin, Jerome Pineau, Stijn Vandenbergh and Peter Velits.
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