The pair of Soudal Quickstep stars, Lemco Evenpoel and Julien Alaphilippe, have decided where they will start the 2023 season. Evenpoel, the rainbow jersey holder, will start his campaign at the Vuelta a San Juan, while former world champion Alaphilippe will race in his native France in late February.

The Belgian team announced that Evenpoel, who also won this season's Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Vuelta a España, will return to the race he won in 2020 to start next season. The Vuelta a San Juan, which has not been held since that event, will run from January 22 to 29.

Meanwhile, Alaphilippe will head to the Von Ardèche Classic and the Drome Classic on February 25 and 26. These two one-day races have been part of the season opener in two of the past three seasons.

"I'm happy to be racing in San Juan again," said 2020 winner Evenpoel. 'In 2019, my first race as a pro, I have so many great memories of Argentina and I'm happy to start the year there wearing the rainbow jersey.'

"I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of great fans on the road and I can't wait to debut the Sourdal-Quickstep world champion jersey in a few weeks."

Evenpoel is not the only start heading to Argentina next month. Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) recently confirmed that he will return to the race, which he won on the closing stage in 2019.

World time record holder Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) will also be one of the stars of San Juan. The Italian raced there in 2017, 2018, and 2020, winning the youth class and finishing second overall four years ago; Peter Sagan (Total Energies), who participated in the 2019 and 2020 competitions, will also compete.

According to WielerFlits, Alaphilippe will take on two French one-day races based in Valence, in the Drome region of southeastern France. Alaphilippe has competed in these two races four times before, including in 2022, but has not won either.