Gent-Wevelgem Women confirm 24 teams

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The organisers of Gent-Wevelgem have confirmed the 24 teams that will take part in this year's race, with Boels Dolmans and Mitchelton-Scott set to headline the event. Team Virtu Cycling, the new home of defending champion Marta Bastianelli, are also among the invitees.

Gent-Wevelgem is the fifth race on the UCI Women's WorldTour, which is heading into its fourth year. All of the top 15 teams, which WorldTour organisers are required to invite, will be on the start line in March, including CCC-Liv, the new Trek-Segafredo women’s team, Sunweb and Canyon-SRAM.

Boels Dolmans and Mitchelton-Scott are the top two ranked teams in the women's peloton after dominating the WorldTour competition in 2018, though both missed out on the win in last year's race. Bastianelli took the victory with the Ale Cipollini team, who will be back in March but without the race winner, who moved to Team Virtu Cycling over the winter. Jolien D'hoore finished second for Mitchelton-Scott, but the Belgian has switched to Boels Dolmans for the 2019 season.

The remaining seven of the top-15 teams that received automatic spots are WNT Rotor Pro Cycling, Valcar Cylance Cycling, Movistar, Team Tibco Silicon Valley Bank, Parkhotel Valkenburg. FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope and Bigla.

A further nine squads received invitations, including BTC City Ljubljana, Astana, Lotto Soudal, Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport, Armitalia-Basso Bikes-Vaiano, Health Mate Ladies Team, Hitech Products Birk Sport, Drops and Biehler Pro Cycling (formerly Swabo Women).

The eighth edition of Gent-Wevelgem Women will take place on March 31.