Oliver Naessen of AG2R La Mondiale said that with the Belgian Classics specialist participating in both "opening weekend" races this Saturday, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and Sunday, Coone Brussel Coone, this weekend's races are "the real beginning of the season," he said.

"Along with many other racers, I'm counting down the days to this weekend," he told HLN.be on Tuesday. 'For me, this is the real beginning of the season. We may have already shown something in the preparation races, but on Saturday morning all counters will be reset to zero."

"Look at the list of participants for the Omloop," he suggested, whose start list includes defending champion Zdenek Stival (Deceuninck-QuickStep), 2018 champion Michal Valgren (NTT) ), two-time winner Greg Van Avermaat (CCC Team), Ian Stannard of Team Ineos, who won both the 2014 and 2015 races, road race world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo), Bahrain McLaren's Dylan Tuns.

"There are no bad riders for Saturday's start, but we are ready," said Nyssen.

The 29-year-old Belgian will be joined in this race by the French WorldTour team, which includes his brother and newcomer Laurens Naessen, the experienced Stein Vandenberg, who finished second in Omloop in 2013 and fourth in 2015, and Paris-Roubaix in 2018 former Swiss road race champion Sylvain Dillier, who finished second behind Peter Sagan.

AG2R will replace Alexis Gujard with Clément Venturini between Omloop on Saturday and Kuhne on Sunday.

AG2R La Mondiale competing in Omloop Het Newsblad: Sylvain Dillier, Julien Duval, Dorian Godon, Alexis Gujard, Laurens Naessen, Oliver Naessen, Stein Vandenberg

AG2R La Mondiale in Brussels-Coone: Sylvain Dillier, Julien Duval, Dorian Godon, Laurens Naessen, Oliver Naessen, Stein Vandenberg, Clément Venturini