Florian Senechal will lead a seven-man Deceuninck Quickstep team in the Walloon town of Quaregnon on Tuesday to defend his Le Samin title with support from Iljo Keisse, Alvaro Hodeg, Tim Declercq and Davide Ballerini.

Last season, this race, in which three Deceuninck Quickstep athletes (Senechal, Declercq, and Pieter Serry) joined the decisive 10-man break, was a losing race for the Belgian team.

Deceuninck-QuickStep also won the race in 2018 thanks to Niki Terpstra, who left the Belgian WorldTour team after the season to join Total Direct Energie.

Also in line are Jasper Steuben (Trek-Segafredo), who won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last Saturday, and Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling), who finished runner-up at the Coone Brussel Coone on Sunday.

"Le Samyn is a very hard race, we know that from past races. The course hasn't changed [from last year] and if the wind is strong then you have to be careful and try to get into the right group."

"Florian won here last season with a great victory and is in good shape. Alvaro is also fast and if it comes to a group sprint we will rely on him.

"I'm motivated by the great performances of the team last weekend in Belgium and France," he continued, referring to Caspar Asgreen's victory in Sunday's Cune Brussel-Cune and Remi Cavagna's win in Saturday's Ardèche Classic. Referring to the results, he said, "We will try again to get a good result."

For British fans following the Belgian one-day race, Harry Tanfield will be in the French WorldTour team AG2R La Mondiale, while Louis Askey and Jake Stewart are in the Groupama-FDJ Continental Team lineup, and two British Continental teams, Canyon dhb p/b Soreen and Vitas Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK, will also take part in the UCI 1.1 event.

Dečuninck-Quick Step for Le Samin 2020: Davide Ballerini, Tim Declercq, Alvaro Hodeg, Iljo Keisse, Florian Senechal, Yannick Steimle, and Bert Van Lerberghe