The 2010 season for began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTour team, they were automatically invited and obliged to attend every event in the ProTour. The team looks to remain as one of the world's foremost in the spring classics. Its ridership is mostly unchanged from 2009, in spite of an offseason attempt to sign reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador. 2010 roster Ages as of January 1, 2010. Riders who joined the team for the 2010 season Riders who left the team during or after the 2009 season One-day races Spring classics Fall races Stage races After beginning their season at the Tour Down Under with no victories, Quick Step then entered the Tour of Qatar with two-time defending champion Boonen leading their squad. Boonen won two stages in the race, but a two-man breakaway in the race's second stage proved critical, as it afforded Wouter Mol and Geert Steurs the top two steps on the podium by more than a minute over the rest of the field. Boonen finished third overall. Grand Tours Giro d'Italia Quick Step came to the Giro with a squad headed by Cataldo. Seeldraeyers, who had won the youth classification in the 2009 Giro d'Italia, was kept off the squad in favor of the Tour de France. Weylandt was included with sprint victories in mind. In stage 3, the second of two road race stages in the Netherlands, Weylandt was successful at avoiding crashes, including one with left to race that made for a selection of just 29 riders finishing the stage together. Weyldant sprinted Graeme Brown and Robert Förster to take the stage win. After the transfer to Italy, the squad finished in 16th place in the stage 4 team time trial, finishing with six riders 2'15" off the pace of stage winners . The squad was again active in stage 5. Pineau followed an early morning move from rider Yukiya Arashiro, and they, along with ' Julien Fouchard formed the day's breakaway. The stage was flat, and in the final kilometers the sprinters' teams came to the front of the peloton to try to catch them. They did not time their move properly, however, and the three stayed by a margin of four seconds. Pineau won the sprint for the stage, and took the red jersey as