The Rally Cycling team are wrapping up their early-season training camp in Castellon de la Plana, Spain, where they've been gathering since February 17. The team have a busy spring schedule, starting at Le Samyn and tackling a half dozen one-day races, with the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya WorldTour stage race on the menu for the end of March.
On Wednesday, the team learned that they've earned a wildcard invitation to another WorldTour event, the Tour de Suisse, which takes place from June 6 to June 13, together with Total Direct Energie.
"The Tour de Suisse is one of the most beautiful, challenging and well-run races in the world. We take the invitation very seriously and have built our season around the race," said Jonas Carney, performance director.
Rally Cycling raced Tour de Suisse in 2019 and, although the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, they competed in the Digital Suisse 5 virtual race, where Stephen Bassett, Matteo Dal-Cin and Gavin Mannion all earned top 10 finishes.
Bassett and Dal-Cin will be on the start list for Le Samyn, a cobbled semi-classic and Pro Series race in Belgium's Walloon region. They'll be joined by Pier-André Cote, Colin Joyce, newcomer Joey Rosskopf, neo-pro Magnus Sheffield and Nickolas Zukowsky.
Other newcomers to the team who will debut in the spring races include Ben King, Dutch sprinter Arvid de Kleijn and climber Keegan Swirbul.
Rally Cycling published a virtual team presentation this month that included refreshingly honest accounts from riders on how they came through the pandemic last year and footage from the team's successes, including Mannion's win in Le Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc.
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