Dries Devenyns, winner of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race earlier this month, will compete in this week's French stage race, the Tour de la Provence, including Caspar Asgreen and Remi Cavagna alongside their Detunink-Quick-Step teammates.

The race, the first of the season for Asgreen, is a step up to the spring classics for the young Dane, who finished second behind EF's Alberto Bettiol in the Tour de Flanders last year.

Andrea Bajori is another newcomer who, like Garrison, will be making his debut, having won last year's Ronde d'Isard, which has a reputation as a testing ground for young talent, and the under-23 Il Lombardia. The team is finished by Pieter Serry, an experienced Belgian who led his young teammate Remco Evenpoel to overall victory at the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina.

It remains to be seen if Deceuninck-QuickStep has the riders to contend for the overall title in future races, including Mont Ventoux. Arkea-Samsic's Warren Barguil and Nairo Quintana, Team Ineos' Pavel Sivakov, Sunweb's Wilco Kelderman, and Astana with last year's overall winner Gorka Izaguirre.

However, there is no doubt that all seven of the Dieslink-Quickstep riders are capable of winning a stage, and sport director Gerd van Bont says they are entering the race with "high confidence."

"One thing is for sure, it won't be an easy race. The first stage, where the race could be broken up by the wind, will require caution before entering the rugged terrain that will create large gaps."

"Our team has a combination of youth and experience, and we are very excited to see how newcomers Andrea and Ian will fit into the team and how they will react in their first race with the "Wolfpack". Casper will also start his season here, and Remi, Dries, Iljo, and Pieter have already raced this year and are in good shape.

The climbing begins in earnest on stage 2 between Aubagne and La Ciotat, and will be stepped up a notch on stage 3 the following day. It starts in Istres and finishes in the Chalet Reynard in Mont Ventoux.

The four-day race concludes with a hilly final stage from Avignon to Aix-en-Provence.

Deceuninck-QuickStep competing in the 2020 Tour de la Provence: Caspar Asgreen (Denmark), Andrea Bajori (Italy), Remi Cavagna (France), Dries Devenance (Belgium), Ian Garrison ( (USA), Iljo Keisse (Bel), Pieter Serry (Bel)