Over the next week, team LottoNL-Jumbo begins in three WorldTour races from Siena to Paris. On Saturday, the team races the Strade Bianche around Siena. A day later, another team begins the eight-day Paris-Nice stage race. On Wednesday, partly overlapping Paris-Nice, the seven-day Tirreno-Adriatico starts in central Italy.

Roglic leads Team LottoNL-Jumbo over Strade Bianche’s white gravel roads

Primoz Roglic will lead Team LottoNL-Jumbo over Strade Bianche’s white gravel roads in Siena, Italy, this Saturday. The race will give the Slovenian a chance to score valuable WorldTour points and set him up for Tirreno-Adriatico the following week.

Roglic is returning after his recent Volta ao Algarve win. Juan José Lobato, who fell sick and abandoned the Abu Dhabi Tour last week, will join the team.

The one-day race in Tuscany stepped up to the top WorldTour series for 2017. Now-retired Fabian Cancellara won three of the 10 editions, including in 2016.

The 175-kilometre race starts and ends in Siena’s famous Piazza del Campo and is distinguished by its white and rolling gravel roads. If it stays dry, expect huge dust clouds, but if it rains as predicted, the gavel will become much harder to manage.

Roglic and Lobato will be joined by Italian Enrico Battaglin, Bert Jan Lindeman and Paul Martens, and youngsters Antwan Tolhoek, Alexey Vermeulen and Floris De Tier. Jan Boven and Addy Engels will direct the eight-man team.

04/03 - Strade Bianche

Riders:

Enrico Battaglin

Bert-Jan Lindeman

Juan José Lobato

Paul Martens

Primoz Roglic

Floris De Tier

Antwan Tolhoek

Alexey Vermeulen

Coaches: Addy Engels & Jan Boven

Groenewegen aims for 2017 first in Paris-Nice

LottoNL-Jumbo will race Paris-Nice with the sprint train supporting Dylan Groenewegen, who aims to take his first win of 2017. Steven Kruijswijk will lead the classification team.  The race that ends on Saturday, March 12, in Nice.

The sprint train will support Groenewegen on the flats and serve double-duty, protecting Kruijswijk en route to the mountains. Stef Clement’s specific task is to support Kruijswijk in the flats and mountains.

Kruijswijk, after racing in the Abu Dhabi Tour last week, hopes to continue to hone his form in Paris-Nice in view of the Giro d’Italia, May 5 to 28.

The French World Tour, won last year by Sky’s Geraint Thomas, kicks off with two flat stages. The classification men will have a chance to already differentiate themselves in the stage four, 14.5-kilometre time trial. The 'Race to the Sun' ends with three mountain stages, including the summit finish to La Couillole a day before the conclusion in Nice.

05/03 - 12/03 - Parijs - Nice

Riders:

Stef Clement

Dylan Groenewegen

Steven Kruijswijk

Tom Leezer

Timo Roosen

Bram Tankink

Robert Wagner

Maarten Wynants

Coaches: Nico Verhoeven & Frans Maassen

Gesink, Roglic and Boom in Tirreno-Adriatico

Robert Gesink will form part of the team in Tirreno-Adriatico, where in 2011 he placed second overall behind Cadel Evans in 2011.

Slovenian Primoz Roglic hopes to cash in on his form that delivered him the Volta ao Algarve overall victory recently After Strade Bianche, he will stay in Italy to form part of LottoNL-Jumbo’s eight-man team.

Lars Boom joins the team instead of racing in Paris-Nice. The directors made the decision for their classics leader in order to give him an extra couple of days to recover from his crash in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

Tirreno-Adriatico kicks off on Wednesday, March 8, with a team time trial over 22 kilometres and ends, March 14, with an individual time trial over 10 kilometres. The route takes the cyclists over several mixed stages and for stage five, includes a summit finish on Monte Terminillo.

08/03 - 14/03 - Tirreno - Adriatico

Riders:

Lars Boom

Enrico Battaglin

Jos van Emden

Robert Gesink

Juan José Lobato

Paul Martens

Primoz Roglic

Jurgen Van den Broeck