Team Quick Step is expected to announce its final Tour de France roster after Tom Boonen was ruled out through injury last week. The team has said that it will choose between Stijn Devolder, Kevin Hulsmans and Wouter Weylandt.
However, Tour organisers ASO have told the team that Weylandt is not eligible to ride, since he was not on the 15-man list which the team submitted at the start of April. Both Devolder and Hulsmans were on that list and are therefore eligible.
Devolder won the Belgian national championship title on Sunday, but the rider has had a strained relationship with team manager Patrick Lefevere. Devolder had earlier said he did not want to ride the Tour.
The other reserve rider is Kevin Hulsmans, generally considered to be Boonen's lieutenant and main helper. His presence would give the Belgian team a possibility in the sprint finishes. “It seems logical that a sprinter would be replaced by a sprinter,” he told sporza.be.
Hulsmans also said that the loss of Boonen “is obviously a disaster for the team. Quick Step doesn't really have a classification rider and now our top sprinter is out.”
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