Thomas De Gendt will start his 2013 season with the Santos Tour Down under for the third consecutive time
After two successful seasons, Thomas De Gendt of Team Vacansoleil-DCM decided to mark his third consecutive appearance at the UCI Inaugural event, Santos Tour Down Under 2013.
The cyclist will be accompanied by Tomasz Marczynski at the Australian race but the remaining team has not yet been finalised.
“It will be the third year in a row for me to race over there and that shows that I like it,” he said in a team press release.
“Like every year, the shape is always a surprise in the first race but it should be good to kick off the season with someone from the team in front".
However, The Belgian’s biggest goal of the season remains a stage victory at the Tour de France and a top ten overall spot at the event.
De Gendt marked his Giro debut appearance this year and surprised many with his all-round performance during the three-week race.
He rode brilliantly during the first Grand Tour race of the season and managed to claim the 20th stage of the race along with the third overall finish after the final general classifications.
Thomas finished 1 minute and 39 seconds behind the race leader, Ryder Hesjedal of Team Garmin-Barracuda with Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver of Team Katusha securing the second position.
He also bagged the seventh stage of the Paris-Nice 2012 and claimed the third overall position at the Amstel Gold Race 2012.
Last week, Team Vacansoleil-DCM’s teambuilding exercise helped him identifying his major goals of the New Year and helped him plan the coming season as team leader.
"I feel like training again and one of my goals is to peak more and more. The fact that the team made me peak during the teambuilding on Thursday night wasn't calculated but the cooperation with my teammates gave me confidence for 2013,” he noted.
The cyclists were divided into three different teams during the teambuilding exercise depending on their goals for the season ahead, the red team, the blue team and yellow team.
The red team was built around Romain Feillu and Kenny Hummel and included all the sprinters while the blue built around Thomas De Gendt and Wout Poels had all the stage race specialists while the Classics riders including Bjorn Leukemans and Pim Ligthart
formed the yellow team.
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