Tour of Alberta runner up Bookwalter and stage victor Evans also part of very solid squad
USA Pro Challenge winner Tejay van Garderen returns to action this weekend when he competes in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the two Canadian WorldTour races on the calendar. With the America determined to ride well in the world road race championship, he has been training hard in Aspen since his Pro Challenge win and is fired up to perform in the Canadian events and the worlds itself.
“I definitely feel motivated for the later part of the season,” he stated. “Sometimes it’s hard to get motivated this late in the year so you just ride out the rest of the season. But this year, I’ve been taking it very seriously and staying on track.”
Van Garderen will be joined by a strong lineup including former Tour de France winner Cadel Evans. The Australian had a tough Tour de France but has rebounded well and last week won a stage in the new Tour of Alberta.
Also on the squad is Brent Bookwalter, who was second on a stage and second overall in that race, plus Marcus Burghardt, Amaël Moinard and Steve Morabito. All were part of the squad that won the team classification there and have strong morale.
The team will be completed by two other strong riders. Greg Van Avermaet has been in fine form this summer, winning two stages plus the overall in the Tour de Wallonie, netting a stage win plus three runner-up places in the Tour of Utah and then placing second, third, fourth and fifth on stages of the USA Pro Callenge.
On that form he could be one of those in contention for a victory in the Canadian WorldTour events.
Also on the squad is Daniel Oss, who has clocked up second places on stages of the Giro d’Italia, the Tour of Austria and the Tour de Wallonie.
The team has a lot of strength in depth and that gives the team’s assistant director Jackson Steward a lot of confidence. “We have a lot of guys going really well now. That means more opportunities for any situation that the race throws our way. It’s nice to know that you have so many guys that can win out of the right situation.”
The first of the two races is in two day’s time in Québec, where the riders will fight it out over sixteen laps of a 12.6-kilometer circuit. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal follows two days later.