The announcement of the Giro selection has caused some resentment at Bora-Hansgrohe. German champion Emanuel Buchmann was extremely disappointed after his non-selection. “The team promised me co-leadership,” he wrote on Instagram a few days ago. “That is news for us. We did not really understand his post,” sports director Enrico Gasparotto responds.
In the week before the Tour of Italy, the 8-man selections arrived. This happened mostly quietly, except at Bora-Hansgrohe.
Emanuel Buchmann reacted displeased with an Instagram post. He did not make the selection.
“I cannot describe my disappointment and frustration. My entire season was planned towards the Giro and the team even promised me co-leadership for the classification.”
“I wanted to prepare for the last three weeks, but 16 days before the start of the Giro I received the call to say that I would not be there.”
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Victim of strategy change
His team Bora-Hansgrohe were surprised, but sports director Enrico Gasparotto also thinks it was a nice reaction. “That means he really wanted to be in the Giro. We need riders who go for it.”
“I was quite surprised to read that we had promised him co-leadership. That is something new for us. It is not right.”
Gasparotto explains how the fork is attached to the stem. “During the first meeting with the riders in November, we discussed that Martinez and Kämna would be our two classification men in the Giro.”
We want to go to the Giro with versatile riders who can win from the break.
Enrico Gasparotto (Bora-Hansgrohe)
At the beginning of April, Lennard Kämna suffered rib fractures and a lung contusion after a collision during training. That threw Bora’s Giro plans into disarray.
“I called Buchmann and explained to him that we have adjusted our strategy somewhat due to the failure of Kämna.”
What exactly is that tactic? “As a team we want to go to the Giro with versatile riders who can win from the break.”
“That was the reason why we brought Jonas Koch into the Giro selection. He can climb and is fast enough to win a sprint from a thinned out peloton,” says Gasparotto.
Riders must understand and accept that the strategy changes.
Enrico Gasparotto (Bora-Hansgrohe)
The 2-time winner of the Amstel Gold Race understands the disappointment with ‘Emu’.
“In 2018 I was 3rd in the Amstel and 6th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. My team Bahrain Merida then decided 1 week before the Giro to remove me from the selection. I was also disappointed at the time.”
“But if a team’s strategy changes due to certain things that have happened in recent months, the riders must understand and accept that,” concludes Gasparotto.
This season, Buchmann has not yet achieved further than distant places of honor in the Tour of Oman (17th), the UAE Tour (27th) and the Tour of the Basque Country (32nd).
This is Bora-Hansgrohe’s Giro selection:
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