Israel-Premier Tech sports activities supervisor Rik Verbrugghe has revealed that Canada’s Michael Woods won’t experience La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with the group as a substitute set to be constructed round 2022 Flèche winner Dylan Teuns and Tour Down Under winner Stephen Williams.
This 12 months’s La Flèche Wallonne will see the peloton deal with the well-known leg-breaking end up the Mur de Huy 4 instances for the primary time. The mid-week Classic covers a hilly 199.1km together with ascents of the 1.3km, 9.6% Mur de Huy after 104.1km, 135.8km, 167.5km and on the end.
Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) are anticipated to be contenders for victory on Wednesday.
Cyclingnews understands that Woods has been slowed by a virus in latest weeks however is prone to be again on kind in time for the Giro d’Italia.
Woods has a formidable collection of leads to the Ardennes Classics, ending fourth, sixth, fourth and third in latest editions of Flèche Wallonne. He has completed within the high ten at Liège-Bastogne-Liège six instances, together with second to Bob Jungels in 2018.
“He raced the Volta a Catalunya however one thing was unsuitable, so we’ve determined to depart him at residence. He won’t experience La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège,” Verbrugghe advised the podcast of Belgian tv channel RTBF.
“Without him, we’ll give attention to backing Dylan Teuns and Stephen Williams, who might actually create a shock on the Mur de Huy.
“We’ll miss the presence of Michael Woods however he’ll be 100% prepared for the Giro.”
The full Israel-Premier Tech line-up for Flèche Wallonne has nonetheless to be confirmed however is anticipated to be a robust group that includes Nick Schultz, Jakob Fugslang, Jake Stewart, Simon Clarke and George Bennett.