By Susan Westemeyer
Team Gerolsteiner is taking on the cobblestones and hellingen in the Omloop Het Volk on Saturday. German-Australian rider Heinrich Haussler will look to take a sprint after conquering the 11 hellingen – short but steep climbs. His teammates Stephan Schreck, Sven Krauss and Tom Stamsnijder could also put in a surprise on the 199 km around Gent.
On Sunday, another group of Gerolsteiner riders will ride the Gran Premio di Lugano in Switzerland. The team there will be led by Davide Rebellin, who is fresh off a victory in the Tour de Haut Var. He will again be supported by his countryman Andrea Moletta, who helped him set up the win in France. Stefan Schumacher is also on the squad, as is local rider Oliver Zaugg.
U23 World Champion Peter Velits will lead Team Milram in the GP Lugano. The Slovakian youngster was looking forward to the "challenging" race, saying, "looking at the profile, I would say this is a good race for me." The GP Lugano consists of five laps of a 35,7 km course, for a total of 178,5 km.
Team Astana is sending the same squad to Omloop Het Volk on Saturday and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday. The team also announced its line-up for the upcoming Vuelta a Murcia, led by Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.
Gerolsteiner for Omloop Het Volk: Thomas Fothen, Oscar Gatto, Heinrich Haussler, Sven Krauss, Sebastian Lang, Stephan Schreck, Tom Stamsnijder, and Carlo Westphal.
Gerolsteiner for GP Lugano: Francesco De Bonis, Mathias Frank, Andrea Moletta, Davide Rebellin, Matthias Russ, Ronny Scholz, Stefan Schumacher, and Oliver Zaugg.
Milram for GP Lugano: Andrey Grivko, Brett Lancaster, Elia Rigotto, Luca Barla, Matej Jurco, Peter Velits, Sebastian Schwager, and Sergio Ghisalberti.
Astana for Omloop Het Volk and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne: Koen de Kort, Sergei Ivanov, Benoit Joachim, Aaron Kemps, Dmitriy Muravjev, Gregory Rast, Michael Schär and Tomas Vaitkus.
Astana for the Vuelta a Murcia: Jani Brajkovic, Antonio Colom, Alberto Contador, Maxim Iglinskiy, Daniel Navarro, Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, and José Luis Rubiera.
