Confident Teuns leads BMC at Arctic Race of Norway

Image 1 of 5

After his Tour de Wallonie and Tour de Pologne victories, Dylan Teuns leads the BMC squad at the Arctic Race of Norway aiming for a third straight stage race success.

The Belgian opened his professional account last month with two stages wins and overall victory at the Tour de Wallonie, carrying his winning form to the Tour de Pologne. He won stage 3 ahead of world champion Peter Sagan and held off Rafa Majka in the final hilly stages to claim overall victory.

"I have just enjoyed the best two weeks of my cycling career so far and I'm coming into this race feeling in great shape and motivated to do well again. It will be a totally different style of racing in Norway I think but as a team, we can go in with a lot of confidence," Teuns said.

The 25-year-old will be supported by Floris Gerts, Amaël Moinard, and Danilo Wyss, while Bram Welten makes his debut for the team as a stagiaire. Tenth overall last year, Moinard provides a second card for BMC to play and explained he is ready for the challenge.

"I'm always motivated to race at the Arctic Race of Norway," Moinard said. "The route usually suits me well, so I am pretty confident to be there either for a good GC result or a stage win depending on how the race develops and how I have recovered from the Tour de France and Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian. With the tough parcours on few of the stages and with the team we have, including Dylan Teuns, it should be an interesting race for us."

Sports director at the 2.HC race. Klaas Lodewyck explained that while the team is small in size, he believes he has the quality at his disposal for overall success. BMC is also riding the BinckBank Tour and the Colorado Classic this week.

"While we are only starting with five riders, I think we can be competitive over the course of the four-day stage race," Lodewyck said. "There are two days which look set to be contested in a bunch sprint and I think our stagiaire, Bram Welten can give it a good go on these stages but every rider will be able to take the opportunity to go for stage wins. We will be taking every day as it comes."

Lodewyck added that while he knows Teuns is in career best form, he is also backing his senior riders to continue to carry their condition into the race.

"You never know what to expect at this race, even the weather can be unpredictable, so we will look to race hard. We know that Dylan Teuns is in great shape and I am sure he will be motivated to continue his recent run of success. Plus Amaël Moinard and Danilo Wyss are coming out of the Tour de France so, I think they will be riding at a good level."

BMC Racing for the 2017 Arctic Race of Norway: Floris Gerts (Ned), Amaël Moinard (Fra), Dylan Teuns (Bel), Bram Welten (Ned), and Danilo Wyss (Sui).