Management

OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP (OPQ) - BEL

The former QuickStep team has not just gained a new title sponsor in 2011. Whilst retaining their traditionally superb line-up for the cobbled Classics, headlined by team stalwart Tom Boonen, in 2012 Omega Pharma - QuickStep have added a new dimension to the team with stage race specialists and expert time triallists Tony Martin, Peter Velits and Levi Leipheimer.

Former World Champion Boonen, meanwhile, will take be aiming to add a third Tour of Flanders or fourth Paris-Roubaix to his already impressive palmares. Despite 2011 being a ‘low-key’ season for him, the Belgian star nonetheless took a classic as important as Ghent-Wevelgem for a second time. This year he will be back in the fray again, with France’s Sylvain Chavanel once more a valued second option in the Classics. And as he proved last year, when he was a first-week leader of the Vuelta a España, Chavanel is never far from the action at the major Tours, too.

The biggest change for the seasoned Belgian squad is the arrival of reigning World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin. A winner of Paris-Nice and the Tour of Beijing, as well as stages in the Tour, Criterium du Dauphiné and Vuelta in 2011, Martin’s main summer target will be the time trial of the Olympic Games, as well as seeking to progress further up the classification of the Tour de France.
Should the 27-year-old be seeking advice, he could do worse than talk to new teammate Levi Leipheimer. More than ten years Martin’s senior and three times a top three finisher in a major Tour, Leipheimer’s victory in the Tour de Suisse last June proved that the man from Montana is a long way from hanging up his wheels just yet.

Other interesting additions to the Omega Pharma-QuickStep stable include the Velits twins. Third in the 2010 Vuelta, Peter Velits had a disappointing 2011 Tour de France, his big goal last year, so will be gunning to prove his worth there, whilst Martin will add valuable firepower to the team’s Classics line-ups.

“The aim is to win more races than last year, and get some early victories in to ease the pressure,” said team boss Patrick Lefevere in January. With 14 road wins by early March - five more than in 2011- both objectives have been achieved. But Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s rivals would be very unwise to think the Belgian squad will be easing back for the rest of the year as a result.