Tom Pidcock and Ethan Hayter have been announced as part of a strong Ineos Grenadiers lineup for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.
The British pair will be joined by fellow countrymen Ben Swift and Ben Turner, who is making his debut at WorldTour level.
Jhonatan Narvaez, Cameron Wurf and Magnus Sheffield make up the rest of the seven-man squad. The team will be looking to win Omloop for the first time since Ian Stannard took back-to-back wins at the Belgian cobbled classic in 2014 and 2015.
Pidcock and Hayter recently completed the Volta ao Algarve together, where the latter finished fourth overall on general classification while the former did not finish the final stage. Wurf, Narvaez, Turner and Sheffield all raced the Ruta del Sol.
Last week Sheffield took his first professional victory on stage three of that race, attacking in the final and staying away. The 19-year-old American is one of six different winners for Ineos so far this season, across seven races.
Pidcock is targeting the Classics this year after a successful cyclocross season during which he became world champion. His schedule is believed to contain most of the major one-day races this spring, in the run up to his Giro d'Italia debut in May.
Ineos Grenadiers' best finisher last year was Owain Doull, who now rides for EF Education-EasyPost, and is provisionally on the startlist.
Other riders on the startlist for the first WorldTour one-day race of the season include Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), last year's Tour of Flanders champion Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), and Milan-San Remo winner Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo). Peter Sagan will take part in the race for his new TotalEnergies team; he has finished second at Omloop twice before.
The British presence in the race is strengthened by Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious), Doull and Chris Lawless (TotalEnergies).
The USA has three riders in the race, including Sheffield for Ineos Grenadiers, Lawson Craddock (BikeExchange-Jayco), and Kevin Vermaerke (DSM).
The former winners of the Belgian Classic taking part are Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën), Stuyven, Zdeněk Štybar (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost) and Sep Vanmarcke (Israel-Premier Tech).
Omloop is followed on Sunday by Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, with much of the same peloton racing both, although Ineos have not yet confirmed their lineup for that race, it is thought Pidcock will ride on Sunday as well.
Some teams have been forced to enter smaller squads due to injury, the pandemic and scheduling issues; BikeExchange-Jayco have just five riders down for both Omloop and Kuurne.
Ineos Grenadiers team for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2022
Tom Pidcock
Ben Turner
Ben Swift
Jhonatan Narvaez
Ethan Hayter
Magnus Sheffield
Cameron Wurf
