NTT Pro Cycling will be back on Friday for the three-day Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var in Le Canet, north of Cannes, with climbers Ben O'Connor and Louis Maintus and Classics stars Edvald Boasson Hagen and Michal Walgren round out the lineup.

In this tough three-stage French race, formerly known as the Tour du Haut Var, O'Connor and Maintus will be joined by 2019 race winner Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), AG2R La Mondiale's Romain Bardet, Trek Segafredo 's Richie Porte, and recent Tour de la Provence winner Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic), who will face some of the best climbers in the world today.

"The three-day race through the Alpes-Maritimes region is very hilly, and I personally want to make this race exciting," O'Connor told the NTT website. It will be interesting to see how the Classic athletes take on this race, especially on the first day, as it can be very volatile." No matter what their previous races have been like, they will certainly be up for the challenge."

The team appears to be somewhat revitalized compared to the last few seasons. Perhaps this is the result of the appointment of a new team manager, Bjarne Riis, at the beginning of this year. Compared to last year, when NTT, then part of Dimension Data, won only seven races, the 2020 team has already won five, and has also signed Victor Kampenaerts, Domenico Pozzovivo, and Max Valscheid, the latter of whom won two stages at the Tour de Langkawi last week

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Meintjes and O'Connor are looking for stage wins and GC finishes, while Boassonhagen and Valgren continue to tune up for the spring classics, starting with the Omloop Het Nuusblad in Belgium on February 29.

Michael Gogl, Andreas Stockbro, and Reinard Janse van Rensburg will accompany them, and they are also in the NTT lineup for the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var.

Besides O'Connor, Meintjes is the only other climber in the team's lineup for this weekend's race, with O'Connor starting the 2020 season with a stage win at Etoile de Besseges earlier this month, but a forgettable 2019 Meintjes will be hoping for a similar turnaround in fortunes, as the South African last tasted victory in 2015 when he won the final stage at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali to take the overall title.

Following Friday's opening stage from Le Canet to Grasse and Saturday's second stage from Pegomas to the Col d'Eze climb, the two could have a chance to contend for the overall win or even a stage win on Sunday's final stage. The stage starts in La Ronde-les-Moles and finishes on the Mont Faron climb overlooking Toulon.

NTT Pro Cycling in the 2020 Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var: Edvald Boasson Hagen, Michael Goggle, Louis Maintus, Ben O'Connor, and Andreas Stockbro, Reinard Janse van Rensburg, Michael Walgren [17