After a decent showing at the opening weekends spring classics, the next appointment for Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will be Le Samyn on Wednesday. It will be the 47th edition of Le Samyn and MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will certainly be chasing the victory in this prestigious race.
For the past two years running, Kristian Sbaragli secured 5th place at both editions of Le Samyn. In a race Kristian clearly enjoys, the Italian returns after a fine top 10 at the weekends Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and with a stronger team to boot than in 13′ & 14′. Theo Bos, Tyler Farrar, Matt Brammeier, Serge Pauwels, Jay Thomson, Jaco Venter and Johann van Zyl will all join Kristian with the aim of putting a MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung rider on to the podium.
The mid-week UCI 1.1 Belgian classic is possibly one for a sprint finish but like all Belgian classics, this 201km race includes a few early Hellingens and some stretches of cobblestones later on which should shake things up. The race concludes with 5 laps of a 24km course. Over the course of the lap there are 3 separate cobbled sectors and the fight for position will be crucial before each sector. No more than 60 riders have made it to the finish line in recent editions of the event.
Kristian Sbaragli – Rider
In the last 2 editions of Samyn I have come 5th. My ambitions for this year is to certainly do better and fight for that victory. I am feeling quite good at the moment and I hope to have a good day on Wednesday where I will be able to play my card. The race is going to be really hard with a few additional cobbles compared to last year so maybe there will be a smaller bunch sprint.
