Cycling: The Bora-Argon18 team, which was still operating under the name NetApp-Endura this year, is presenting its provisional squad for the coming season.
Manager Ralph Denk's team is planning to start the 20 season with 2015 drivers mainly from German-speaking countries.
In addition to Dominik Nerz, Björn Thurau, Phil Bauhaus and Emanuel Buchmann, Christoph Pfingsten has now also joined the team. The former U23 vice world champion in cyclocross is moving from the Dutch Continental team De Rijke and is intended to strengthen the classic squad. In addition, the two young German sprinters Ralf Matzka and Michael Schwarzmann each extended their contracts by one year.
“After Christoph focused more on road cycling, he was able to impress with results in smaller races, such as winning the prologue at the Flèche du Sud this year. For us, the most important thing is its versatility. With his skills and his speed, we can use Christoph for our classic program as well as for the smaller tours.", Denk commented on the commitment.
“This season, Michael and Ralf have played their part in the fact that we have improved enormously as a team in the sprint area. Both have found their roles in sprint preparation for our captains. In addition, they get the freedom to prove their own final speed in a few sprints. With fourth place at the Münsterland Giro or eighth place at the Brussels Cycling Classics, Ralf has recently shown this potential and we want to build on that in the future.", so keep thinking.
Although the team has thus ended its personnel planning for the coming season, it is open to further commitments: “Our plan for 2015 is that we take over the squad strength of this season. We have now achieved that with a line-up of 20 drivers. But of course, as every year, the driver market will continue to be in motion in the next eight weeks and should there be any exciting options for us, we are open.”
The squad 2015
Shane Archbold (25, NZL), Jan Barta (29, CZE), Phil Bauhaus (20, GER), Cesare Benedetti (27, ITA), Sam Bennett (23, IRL), Emanuel Buchmann (21, GER), Zak Dempster (26, AUS), Bartosz Huzarski (33, POL), Patrick Konrad (22, AUT), Ralf Matzka (25, GER), Jose Mendes (29, POR), Dominik Nerz (25, GER), Christoph Pfingsten (26 , GER), Cristiano Salerno (29, ITA), Andreas Schillinger (31, GER), Daniel Schorn (25, AUT), Michael Schwarzmann (23, GER), Björn Thurau (26, GER), Scott Thwaites (24, GBR ), Paul Voss (28, GER)