Omega Pharma-Quickstep arrive at the Tour of Britain with a strong six-man squad capable of racking up the stage wins at the very least.
Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw will lead their sprinting charge, in a race which has seen the former bag ten career victories.
Paris-Roubaix champion Niki Terpstra is also in their provisional line-up, while Michal Kwiatkowski will hope to recapture the sort of form he showed at the start of the year too.
The Pole won the Volta ao Algarve and Strade Bianche and has enjoyed podium places at the Tour of the Basque Country – where he also bagged the points jersey – La Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
His time trialling ability is undoubted and his performances in the Basque Country show he is well suited to the variety of stages which will feature at the Tour of Britain.
Kwiatkowski looked to be out of touch at the Tour de France, struggling to maintain his GC challenge as he suffered, most of all, in the Pyrenees.
If he can find his legs, however, and is not saddled too greatly by his commitments to Cavendish’s sprint train, he is certainly a contender for the gold jersey.
