With preparations for the 2023 season already well underway and future signings already complete for teams around the peloton, it's that time of year again when team training camps and presentations are back on the schedule.
QuickStep-AlphaVinyl have announced their team presentation for Friday January 6. The squad is welcoming a new lead sponsor next season and will be set for a new look as Soudal-QuickStep.
The team will be presented in the Plopsaland theme park in De Panne, Belgium, with the new roster – and likely the new kit – set to be unveiled among the rollercoasters and water slides.
Soudal-QuickStep will be presented on a stage in the park before the team takes part in a parade, with stars such as world and Vuelta a España champion Remco Evenepoel, sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, and Julian Alaphilippe set to join the festivities.
The team's trio of new signings – sprinter Tim Merlier, climber Jan Hirt, and Classics man Casper Pedersen – will also be present.
The event could see the long-awaited confirmation by Evenepoel on which Grand Tour he will target next season.
He will be choosing between the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France as his major target of the season and he's already said that he'll announce his decision in January. The Belgian star has said that the decision has already been made and he has hinted that the Giro, with its 70km of time trials to the Tour's 22km, will be his choice.
Speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws last month, Evenepoel said, "you could say for me the Giro, Jakobsen the Tour, Merlier the Vuelta" while also noting that winning the Tour would be his "ultimate dream".
The 2023 season will be the team's 21st in the peloton after being founded as QuickStep-Davitamon back in 2003. Soudal-QuickStep is yet another iteration of the squad, which has counted Innergetic, Omega Pharma, and Deceuninck as co-sponsors over the years, while flooring company QuickStep has been ever-present over the past two decades.
