Nokere Koerse announces route and teams

The teams and course for the Nokere Koerse, to be held March 19, were announced on Thursday At least six ProTour teams will be at the start of the Belgian race which prides itself on its "popular character".

The race starts at the Grote Markt in Oudenaarde. After 49 km it reaches Nokere, where the riders will make two laps of a 14.8 km round course. "We will not leave this tradition," said race director Rony De Sloovere, according to the Belga news agency. "In spite of the fact that we are now a UCI ranked 1.1 race, we don't want to lose Nokere Koerse's popular character."

The six ProTour teams taking part are Quick-Step, Silence-Lotto, Francaise des Jeux, Credit Agricole, High Road, and Rabobank. The organisers said that they may add another ProTour team to the list. They will be joined by Topsport Vlaanderen, Landbouwkrediet, Whirlpool, Mitsubishi-Jartazi, Skil-Shimano, Cycle-Collstrop, Josan, Gobert.com, Willems Veranda, Davitamon-Jong Vlaanderen, Race Pro, Designa Kokken, Team 3C-Gruppe, Kuota-Senges, An Post, Differdange, P3 Transfer, Van Vliet and another team to be named later.