Many small climbs in three-day northern France race
The podium (l-r): Lieuwe Westra, Alberto Contador and Stef Clement. (Image credit: Bert Geerts/dcp-bertgeerts@xs4all.nl)
Astana and RadioShack have announced their line-ups for the Tour de Picardie. The 64th edition of the race, to be held May 14 to 16, covers 541 kilometres through the Picardie region in northern France.
David de la Fuente will lead Astana. The Spanish climber will be supported by Australian sprinters Allan and Scott Davis, as well as Valery Dmitriev, Benjamin Noval, Yevgeniy Nepomniadhshiy, Bolat Raimbekov, and Mirko Selvaggi.
RadioShack will be represented by Fumiyuki Beppu, Sam Bewley, Daryl Impey, Gregory Rast, Sébastien Rosseler, Bjørn Selander, Gert Steegmans and Tomas Vaitkus
The opening stage features four climbs, with the last coming only 8km before the finish. Stage two also has four climbs, including one up to the finish line. The four climbs in the final stage all come in the first half, so a mass sprint finish can be expected.
Last year's edition was won by Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil.
The following teams will ride the 2.1 ranked race: Landbouwkrediet, Topsport Vlaanderen, Mercator, Caisse d'Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Team RadioShack, AG2R-La Mondiale, Française des Jeux, BBox Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Saur-Sojasun, Big Mat-Auber 93, Brittany, Roubiax Lille-Métropole, Sky Team, Astana, Skil-Shimano, and Vacansoleil.
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