Dumoulin leads Giant-Alpecin in Paris-Nice
Paris-Nice, the ‘Race to the Sun’, begins this weekend and Team Giant-Alpecin heads to the eight-day WorldTour race with a strong team. Among the highlight of the race will undoubtedly be the ascent of the Mont Ventoux on the fifth stage.
Tom Dumoulin will line-up at Paris-Nice after his successful season opener at the Tour of Oman. He will be joined by Laurens ten Dam for the first time, to make his debut for Team Giant-Alpecin.
Looking ahead to the race, coach Aike Visbeek said: “Our first focus will be to do a good prologue with Tom. From there on we will take it day by day to see what is possible in the general classification.
“With the experience of Koen and Roy we will be able to deal with the different conditions of the race. In addition, Laurens will bring that necessary experience for the mountains.”
Ten Dam lines up for his first race since the 2015 Tour de France and first in Giant-Alpecin colours following his move across from LottoNL-Jumbo. The 35-year-old will ride in support of Dumoulin at Paris-Nice, returning to the WorldTour race for the first time since 2012.
Giant-Alpecin team for Paris-Nice 2016:
Roy Curvers (NED)
Laurens ten Dam (NED)
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Simon Geschke (GER)
Cheng Ji (CHN)
Koen de Kort (NED)
Tobias Ludvigsson (SWE)
Georg Preidler (AUT)