Deceuninck-Quickstep has decided against splitting the team into three "bubbles" for the shortened 2020 road season, instead sending 50 riders and staff to a pre-season high altitude camp in the Dolomites near the San Pellegrino pass in July, Italy The team opted instead to send 50 riders and staff to Italy for a pre-season high altitude camp in July in the Dolomites near the San Pellegrino Pass.

Team manager Patrick Lefebvre told Belgian network Eén that the camp will take place in northern Italy from July 6 to 23, and that the entire team will participate.

"Initially we were going to make three different bubbles like the other teams. But we are not going to do that," Lefebvre said, explaining that having everyone in the same place would make it easier to pinpoint the source of the coronavirus infection. [Italy is open. Italy is an open country. If a different person gets sick in a hotel, we don't know who it is; if we are all in one hotel only and someone gets sick, we know that it came from us."

This camp will be the second team meeting since the race was suspended in March due to a coronavirus pandemic. The riders and staff will gather in mid-June in the Ardennes region of Flanders to regroup and preview the cobbled classic. The team's medical staff will examine COVID-19 before departing for Italy.

"We will do the tests before we leave," Lefebvre said. 'We already have an inspection scheduled for June 9 in Wevelgem. We have a big camper. We get in the camper and we get out of the camper. This is a whole organization and it costs money. But we have to do it. We've been through a lot.

Deceuninck-Quickstep had accumulated 15 wins by the end of the Paris-Nice race and is looking forward to the World Tour, which begins on August 1 with Strade Bianche. However, earlier than expected in Belgium, a proposal has been floated to allow races with more than 50 riders after July 1 instead of after July 31.

"We can race, but not at the World Tour level.