The Lotto Belisol team for the 2012 Tour will be lead by Andre Greipel as he looks to add to his single Tour win from last year. As well as supporting Greipel in his bid for stage wins and the Maillot Vert, Lotto will also be aiming to catapult Jurgen Van den Broeck and Jelle Vanendert into top ten GC positions. Vanendert had a breakout Tour last year coming 2nd at Luz Ardiden in stage 12 and winning Stage 14 at Plateau de Beille while holding onto the climber’s jersey from Stage 14 through to Stage 19. Van den Broeck will be looking emulate his team mate and take home a stage win. Lotto will be looking to add to its successful Tour last year in which it won three stages and had stints in yellow, green and the polka dot jerseys.
Van den Broeck crashed out of the 2011 Tour but his team was able to have success in his absence in thanks to Vanendert. 2012 will hopefully see Van den Broeck complete the Tour and build upon his 5th placing in 2010. Lotto is one of many teams that will be split between GC ambitions and the points category. Having two genuine favourites in both these categories will be testing to the Lotto team but as they showed last year, this a difficulty which can be overcome successfully. A key rider for Lotto who at 35 will be making a belated debut is the Kiwi Greg Henderson. Along with Adam Hanson these two riders will be supporting Greipel and protecting the GC men in the peloton. Hansen may have a chance to attack and try to win himself a stage but the super domestique may find his chances limited.
Andre Greipel along with Mark Cavendish, Matt Goss and Peter Sagan look to be the main sprinters in Tour this year. Cavendish will again be the man to beat but with his team focused on delivering him to Paris in yellow, he may not have the support that HTC offered him. Greipel knows he can beat Cavendish in a sprint and will hope the SKY train lacks the coherence Cavendish was accustomed to at HTC.
Similar to Omega Pharma-Quickstep, Lotto will be an animater of the race but they look like they will offer more of threat to the standings of the GC, points and climbers rather than purely stage wins that Quick Step will primarily be chasing. With a strong team evenly balanced for success on the flat and in the mountains how Lotto manages this split will be, like many other teams, of interest and shall determine how the 2012 Tour will be viewed in hindsight; a success or an overextension of its capabilities.
Van den Broeck crashed out of the 2011 Tour but his team was able to have success in his absence in thanks to Vanendert. 2012 will hopefully see Van den Broeck complete the Tour and build upon his 5th placing in 2010. Lotto is one of many teams that will be split between GC ambitions and the points category. Having two genuine favourites in both these categories will be testing to the Lotto team but as they showed last year, this a difficulty which can be overcome successfully. A key rider for Lotto who at 35 will be making a belated debut is the Kiwi Greg Henderson. Along with Adam Hanson these two riders will be supporting Greipel and protecting the GC men in the peloton. Hansen may have a chance to attack and try to win himself a stage but the super domestique may find his chances limited.
Andre Greipel along with Mark Cavendish, Matt Goss and Peter Sagan look to be the main sprinters in Tour this year. Cavendish will again be the man to beat but with his team focused on delivering him to Paris in yellow, he may not have the support that HTC offered him. Greipel knows he can beat Cavendish in a sprint and will hope the SKY train lacks the coherence Cavendish was accustomed to at HTC.
Similar to Omega Pharma-Quickstep, Lotto will be an animater of the race but they look like they will offer more of threat to the standings of the GC, points and climbers rather than purely stage wins that Quick Step will primarily be chasing. With a strong team evenly balanced for success on the flat and in the mountains how Lotto manages this split will be, like many other teams, of interest and shall determine how the 2012 Tour will be viewed in hindsight; a success or an overextension of its capabilities.
2012 Tour de France Lotto Belisol Team
Andre Greipel
Lars Bak
Francis De Greef
Adam Hansen
Greg Henderson
Jürgen Roelandts
Marcel Sieberg
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Jelle Vanendert
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