Team LottoNL-Jumbo will start the GP Ouest France-Plouay on Sunday, August 30, with two protected riders.

“With Moreno Hofland and Sep Vanmarcke, we have two men for the final kilometres,” Sports Director Frans Maassen said. “The course around Plouay is hard, so hard that it makes the race very calculated. If the peloton would make it a hard race from the start, it will be a real elimination race.

Maassen plans to use a similar tactic to the one colleague Jan Boven used on Sunday in the Vattenfall Cyclassics: attacking with Vanmarcke and waiting for a sprint with Hofland.

“We want to have a little more luck on Sunday,” Paul Martens said. “Because of the crashes of Moreno and Sep, our plans failed in Hamburg.”

Martens finished third in 2009 in the GP Ouest France-Plouay. “Back then, the course was a lot more selective. Now it is somewhat more technical, but the race is easier to control for the sprinters' teams.”

Crash in crit
Martens is aiming to play in similar role as Vanmarcke in Plouay. Maassen wants the same, but the team is cautious after Martens’ heavy crash in a post-Tour de France crit.

“Physically, I’m fit, but my head is not fully recovered. I'm still paying on the bike. In the Tour du Poitou Charentes, I want to improve day by day so that I can attack alongside Sep in Plouay.”

Team line-up:
Brian Bulgac, Rick Flens, Moreno Hofland, Nick van der Lijke, Paul Martens, Bram Tankink, Sep Vanmarcke & Robert Wagner.

Sports Directors:
Frans Maassen & Ken Vanmarcke.