Gaviria and Jungels lead Etixx-QuickStep at Tour of Poland

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Etixx-QuickStep have named its eight-rider team for the 73rd edition of the Tour of Poland with a squad capable of challenging for stage wins across the seven days of racing. The WorldTour stage race will be the final tuneup for Colombian Fernando Gaviria before his aim of winning the omnium gold medal at the Rio Olympics.

Giro d'Italia young jersey winner and sixth place finisher overall Bob Jungels makes his return to racing after defending both his Luxembourg national road race and time trial titles. Zdeněk Štybar makes his third appearance at the race and will be looking to add to his stage win from 2012.

"We are going to the Tour de Pologne with a balanced team, able to shine in any type of race scenario. Zdenek is the rider with the most experience. He knows well the race and he is that type of rider that can play an important role and be protagonist in the key stages. Together with him we have Bob Jungels, who's coming back to a stage race after a great Giro d'Italia and can be a protagonist in the Krakow time trial," said sport director Rik van Slycke.

Gaviria will be aiming to add to his Tour de San Luis, La Provence and Tirreno-Adriatico stage wins with Etixx-QuickStep providing the 21-year-old with two men for the sprint stages to meet his objectives.

"For the sprint stages we can count on the talent of Fernando, who is fine-tuning his condition for Rio and can rely on the experience of Nikolas Maes as lead-out man. The team is completed by Pieter and Laurens, who will be important in the mountain stages, Davide Martinelli and our Polish rider Lukasz Wisniowski, who will be motivated to shine in his home race."

The 2016 Tour de Polgone starts on Tuesday July 12 with a 135km stage from Radzymin to Warszawa and concludes July 18 with a time trial in Kraków.

Etixx-QuickStep for the 2016 Tour of Poland: Laurens De Plus (Bel), Fernando Gaviria Rendon (Col), Bob Jungels (Lux), Nikolas Maes (Bel), Davide Martinelli (Ita), Pieter Serry (Bel), Zdenek Stybar (Cze) and Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol).