After Spain and Italy the Dutch team wants to win a stage in France now

The Tour of France line-up of team Vacansoleil-DCM shows five different nationalities. With Kenny van Hummel (29), Johnny Hoogerland (29), Wout Poels (24), Rob Ruijgh (25) and brand new national time trial champion Lieuwe Westra (29) is the major part of course Dutch. Manager Daan Luijkx announced the nine names today during a press conference in the stadium of NAC Breda FC.

Belgian Kris Boeckmans (25) will make his debut in the Tour of France in the shirt of Vacansoleil-DCM. The squad will be completed by Swedish Gustav Larsson (31), Italian Marco Marcato (28) and Spanish Rafael Valls (25), who extended his contract with the Dutch side with one year. To be well prepared in July five of the riders were in France for a reconnaissance of the key stages, last May.

“We’ve done another step forward”, says sports director Hilaire Van der Schueren. “That’s why our line-up is a little bit different in comparison with last year. During the Tour we would like to show our next improvement. The classifications and jerseys are not our main goals. We want to win a stage again, like we did in the Giro d’Italia and earlier in the Vuelta.”

Operational manager Jean-Paul van Poppel agree with him. “We want to improve every time. You should never be satisfied, that’s our secret”, Van Poppel says. For that reason the nine times stage winner of the Tour will analyze every single stage prior to the riders. However not as in the past by bike, but by car…


Managers: Daan Luijkx and Jean-Paul van Poppel.
Sport directors: Hilaire Van der Schueren and Michel Cornelisse.

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