Sir Bradley Wiggins named in Team Sky squad for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Tuesday 24 February 2015 13:26, UK
Sir Bradley Wiggins will begin his classics campaign on Saturday after being named in Team Sky’s squad for the one-day Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium.
The 200.2km cobbled classic is the first step in Wiggins’ build-up to Paris-Roubaix on April 12, which is his main goal on the road for 2015 and will be his last race for Team Sky.
Also selected for the British team is Ian Stannard, who won the race last year, plus Bernhard Eisel, Andy Fenn, Christian Knees, Salvatore Puccio, Chris Sutton and Elia Viviani.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is followed by the 197km Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday, but Team Sky will not announce their line-up for that race until Saturday night.
Team Sky sports director Servais Knaven said: “We have a strong group heading into the classics. We are excited to get started with this key phase of the season.
"As we all know, anything can happen during Saturday’s race, so we will sit down on Saturday night and assess how things have gone before confirming our line up for Kuurne.”
Wiggins last raced at the Tour of Qatar earlier this month and has since been conducting a reconnaissance of the Belgian cobbles.
Team Sky have a good record in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, having won both races twice.
