As the dust settles on the Tour de Pologne and the Vuelta a Burgos drew to a close on Saturday, teams began deciding their final line-ups for the rapidly approaching Vuelta a España.
Primož Roglič is back training and Jumbo-Visma, after winning the Tour de France, will soon have to decide if Roglič leads their team for a fourth straight year and if he can win a third consecutive Vuelta. But what about Bora-Hansgrohe, the other team to win its first-ever Grand Tour this year?
Following their victory in the Giro d’Italia, Bora-Hansgrohe will field Sergio Higuita for the GC in the Vuelta and almost certainly, although his exact mission has yet to be decided, the Corsa Rosa winner Jai Hindley.
But what about sprinter Sam Bennett and other riders. The Irish sprinter is gradually returning to his best form but fears he may miss out on selection for the Vuelta a España after not securing a place at the Tour de France.
Aleksandr Vlasov has been ruled out by a back injury but senior sports director Rolf Aldag told Cyclingnews that the team’s Vuelta lineup is a puzzle of many pieces and many considerations.
Having succeeded at winning their first Grand Tour far earlier than expected this May, the Vuelta could now become both a test ground for future three-week racing strategies, as well as a target in itself.
Apart from Higuita, Aldag is not ruling anybody out or in just yet, saying that Bora-Hansgrohe has multiple choices in different fields. These range from the points jersey to the overall classification. When it comes to rider selection, it’s really a question of weighing up how much importance is given to each goal.
“We do have world-class riders in every area, with Sam Bennett in the sprints. Then of course there’s the GC. So the long list is pretty long, and we’ve got lots of options,” Aldag explained to Cyclingnews.
“At the same time, we are in a transition towards GC racing, and the team manager Ralph Denk made it pretty clear what we are aiming for. Winning a Grand Tour was a three-year project but we did it May. So that also gives us the freedom not to have to chase something we’ve already achieved. It’s that’s a pretty luxurious situation to be in.
“There’s a lot of learning still to do though, so it might be interesting to learn [at the Vuelta] just how to combine a sprinter’s team with GC goals and see what type of riders you need.”
Bora-Hansgrohe went full-on for GC in the Giro and in the Tour, meaning Bennett…
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