Vacansoleil, RadioShack announce Amstel Gold Race teams

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Stijn Devolder, Björn Leukemans and Marco Marcato rode the Flanders Spring Classics for Vacansoleil-DCM and will now take on the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege as well.

Leukemans did the best of the three in the Flanders races, finishing 13^th in Paris-Roubaix. His best Amstel Gold result was seventh in 2005. Marcato was eighth in the race last year.

In Amstel the three will be joined by Uzbekistan champion Sergey Lagutin, Wout Poels, Johnny Hoogerland, Rob Ruygh and Pim Ligthart. First-year pro Ligthart recently took his first win, at the Hel van het Mergelland.

Poel and Hoogerland will be protected riders in the race,with the latter declaring, “I want to be in front in the finale of the race."

“I have high expectations and we have a strong team with several riders which can do the final,” said sport director Michel Cornelisse. “We will need a strong collective against the other teams but I am confident in a good result.”

The team also announced its long list for its first Giro d'Italia. Nine of the following 12 riders will be selected: Johnny Hoogerland, Martijn Keizer, Joost van Leijen, Jens Mouris (The Netherlands), Matteo Carrara, Alberto Ongarato, Mirko Selvaggi (Italy), Borut Bozic Slovenia), Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan), Michal Golas (Poland), Frederik Veuchelen (Belgium) and Maxim Belkov (Russia).

RadioShack announced its line-ups for the GP de Denain on Thursday, April 14, as well as for Amstel Gold Race.

GP de Denain: Sam Bewley, Philip Deignan, Robbie Hunter, Ben King, Geoffroy Lequatre, Robbie McEwen, Nelson Oliveira and Jesse Sergent

Amstel Gold Race: Philip Deignan, Ben Hermans, Markel Irizar, Geoffroy Lequatre, Sergio Paulinho, Gregory Rast, Jesse Sergent and Haimar Zubeldia