Cycling: The German WorldTour Team Giant-Alpecin has just confirmed its 9-man squad for the Tour de France (here to our overview article) announced. In addition to the recovered John Degenkolb, Simon Geschke will also start again at the Grand Boucle. In addition, Tom Dumoulin should ensure cheering at the time trial.
The day's victories, as coach Aike Visbeek emphasized, are the top maxim for the German racing team: "Here [with the stage wins] we see several possibilities," the Dutchman is quoted in the corresponding press release. The German duo Degenkolb and Geschke should also ensure the corresponding daily successes. After his serious training accident in January, John Degenkolb was able to get back to his old level in the last few weeks and showed good performances at the Tour of California and the Dauphiné. He's the man in the squad for the sprint stages with a tough finish (all details and stage plans here).
Simon Geschke is named after his sensational victory in the 17th stage last year want to be at the top again in the mountains. It is already the fourth tour for the bearded Berliner, who, depending on the course of the race, should also support Warren Barguil in his fight in the overall standings. The Frenchman just missed out on the top 10 on his debut last year, but should continue to develop without pressure and hone his qualities as a classification driver at the highest level. "We have developed a long-term plan with him [...] We believe that a top 15 result will again be a realistic goal for him." Visbeek comments on Barguil's nomination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHs4MFTon5g
Two key workers in the mountains will be newcomer and Tour veteran Laurens ten Dam and Austrian Georg Preidler. While ten Dam will be at the start of the Tour for the eighth time, Preidler recently showed strong performances on the difficult mountain stages of the Giro. Roy Curvers, Ramon Sinkeldam and Albert Timmer complete the Giant-Alpecin tour line-up.
Team Giant-Alpecin Tour de France 2016
- Warren Barguil (FRA)
- Roy Curvers (NED)
- John Degenkolb (GER)
- Tom Dumoulin (NED)
- Simon Geschke (GER)
- Georg Preidler (AUT)
- Laurens ten Dam (NED)
- Ramon Sinkeldam (NED)
- Albert Timmer (NED)