Following on from the Tour de Pologne, the next WorldTour stage race is the BinckBank Tour in Belgium and the Netherlands. The race which is a continuation of the Eneco Tour takes place from August 7th to the 11th with a total of seven stages.
UAE Team Emirates will head to the race in support of British rider Ben Swift who recently finished 13th at the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic in addition to taking a couple of top-ten placings on stages of the Tour de France.
Daniele Righi, Directeur Sportif of UAE Team Emirates feels that Swift can aim for a high position on GC on a route that suits the Briton.
“Swift has the necessary skills and is in good enough shape to contend for a high level position in the general classification,” said Righi.
“With him, we’ll have a group of young guys who proved to have good aptitude on Belgian roads during last spring; it will be interesting to see them at work. For the sprinting arrivals we will be betting on Kump and Guardini, with Polanc ready to make the most of his fighting spirit in the rough stages”.
Three stages (Stages 1, 3 and 4) should be suited to the sprinters; the second stage will be a 9 km time trial and the general classification should begin to take shape by then. The riders will face a hilly parcours on both Stage 5 and 6 before the final stage which will use some of the route for the Tour of Flanders.
“I’m happy to be participating in the Binck Bank Tour and I’m pleased to be coming to this race in good form, which I worked on during the Tour de France,” confirmed Swift. “We’re going to be facing a very challenging week, with stages featuring various types of routes. We’re going to have to be careful and shine every day if we want to figure well”.
UAE Team Emirates for Binckbank Tour
– Simone Consonni (ITA)
– Filippo Ganna (ITA)
– Andrea Guardini (ITA)
– Marko Kump (SLO)
– Jan Polanc (SLO)
– Ben Swift (GBR)
– Oliviero Troia (ITA)
– Federico Zurlo (ITA)
