In cycling, there’s this soccer-like trend that’s threatening to become a law: money wins races. The most important World Tour competitions, including of course the three major national tours, have become more than ever a matter for the largest, financially strongest teams, who decide the prestigious victories among themselves. Surprise winner from the best of the rest? Have become rare, but they still exist.
The German team Bora-hansgrohe belongs to the second guard in the peloton from the budget. It does not have the outstanding individual skills and as a team does not have the same clout as the competing companies Jumbo-Visma, UAE Emirates or Ineos. But it claims to break into the phalanx of the big ones from time to time. What was impressively achieved in the past season with the Australian professional Jay Hindley winning the Giro d’Italia – a long-awaited and groundbreaking note in the team vita.
Kämna should prove herself
In a digital press conference from the team camp in Mallorca, those responsible for Bora have now given an insight into how and with which personnel coups like this should be possible again in 2023. “The expectations are high. The requirements to perform for ten months in a season, too,” said team manager Ralph Denk. Sport director Rolf Aldag said that the 2022 Giro triumph should now be measured against the title defense mission. That’s why the Tour of Italy in May enjoys special attention in the team headquarters in Raubling.
It’s just that it won’t be Hindley who will pedal there as captain to repeat his victory, but Aleksander Wlasow. The profile of the upcoming Giro, with its three time trials among others, suits the Russian far more, so that Hindley will lead the team in the Tour de France, which is extremely climbing. Only the drivers of the past two years, Tadej Pogacar (UAE) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), under normal circumstances for the German team – in 2021 and 2022 it was fifth place – will not be vulnerable there. Therefore, according to Aldag, the six to eight expected sprint finishes in France “should not take place without us”.
At Bora-hansgrohe, they are counting on Sam Bennett to become the top sprinter again after a weak year, which, among other things, gave him the green jersey on the Champs-Elysées in 2020. So there should be places in the tour squad for the Irishman and at least one personal assistant who prepares the spurts for him.
Christmas gift ideas
:
The most beautiful sports books of the year
Image: Publishers
The situation is different at the Giro, to which the team will travel geared towards the overall ranking. With Lennard Kämna as the joker, who will not receive full team support, but will be given free rein. From a German point of view, the North German had provided highlights in the otherwise unsuccessful 2022 season as a stage hunter. Worth mentioning is the Giro stage win on Mount Etna and the courageous performances on the Tour when he missed a big win by just a few hundred meters and the yellow jersey by just eleven seconds on the legendary Planche des Belles Filles.
Now Kämna should finally prove or try in May what the cycling community in this country has been discussing for years. Namely whether the highly talented can be a good tour driver even in the consuming three-week races. “I am now 26 years old. Now the time is coming when you say you try it or you don’t,” said the professional. “I’ll try to see how far I can get.” The team is very careful not to “put stress on the pro”, as Aldag emphasized. Because Kämna’s mental health was twice the reason for a longer break in his young career.
Because Bora-hansgrohe employs many of the strongest German racers, their performance is also a seismograph for how German road cycling is doing. And there are some question marks ahead of this season. Will Kämna rise to the challenge of riding on classifications at the Giro? Will Emmanuel Buchmann regain his old strength after, as he says, “frustrating” three years of bad luck with falls and injuries? Can Nils Politt also land a top result in the big spring classics in the Bora jersey, and does he have enough good helpers in the squad for that? How quickly can Maximilian Schachmann become the powerful racing driver he was after a season that was cursed by health and given up early?
The 28-year-old has had happy private (he became a father for the first time) and professionally worried months because his recurring phases of weakness are probably due to a Covid infection. “I had the feeling that there was nothing left to save in the season. It was better to press the reset button so as not to procrastinate into the new year,” said Schachmann. Now he finally has the good feeling again that “the training feels normal and I see progress”.
