Four members of the BIKE Channel Canyon squad will lock horns with World Tour stars in the 62nd Sint-Elooisprijs in Ruddervoorde on Wednesday.
Harry Tanfield, Rory Townsend, Jake Womersley and Alex Richardson have entered the 170km pro kermesse in West Flanders, which starts at 1.30pm.
And they are set to race shoulder-to-shoulder with top names from the teams such as Lotto-Soudal, Cannondale-Drapac and Quick-Step Floors.
Favourites for glory will be Lotto, with Jens Debusschere, Kris Boeckmans, Jelle Wallays and Jasper de Buyst, who won the Carrefour Market Heistse Pijl on Saturday, all expected to roll out.
Sep Vanmarcke and Tom Asbroeck are likely to represent Cannondale, with Yves Lampaert and Pieter Serry flying the flag for Quick-Step.
And the stellar field does not end there. Zico Waeytens, of Team Sunweb, Jan Bakelants, from AG2R La Mondiale, and Astana’s Laurens de Vreese are set to add to the World Tour flavour.
Meanwhile Michael van Staeyen, of Cofidis, could also be involved as the riders scrap for the crown won by cyclocross star Mathieu van der Poel last season and Preben van Hecke in 2015.
Tanfield, Townsend and Womersley all raced the UCI 1.2 Memorial Philippe van Coningsloo on Sunday, with the former finishing ninth.
Townsend crashed out of the winning break but is fit to race as he aims to quickly put that tumble behind him. Sports director Tim Elverson said:
“Rory is fine, it’s just a battered ego. Basically there was a big bump, he did hit it and it was enough to knock him off.
“But that said, if he had been paying attention, he would never have hit it. It is a simple as that. I know that and he knows that.
“I can guarantee he was already starting to think about how he was going to win the race, instead of actually getting there.
“He is all right, though. He is gutted as he knows it was a big opportunity. But it is a learning curve and he would have learned as much from losing that race as he might have if he’d won it.
“It is not the end of the world and he will bounce back.”
For more information on the 62nd Sint-Elooisprijs race, click on the following links to visit the Ruddervoorde Koerse website or Facebook page.
