Cycling: The rumors have been confirmed. Bora – hansgrohe replaces sports director Enrico Poitschke with Rolf Aldag and with him almost the entire sports management. The upheaval in the Raublinger racing team, which began with the driver squad, is also continuing at management level.
Aldag should ensure a positive development
In the past few weeks there have been repeated rumors about a change in the sporting direction of Bora – hansgrohe. Now this change is official. Rolf Aldag will take over the post of sports director for the coming season, replacing Enrico Poitschke. His contract was not renewed. So far, Rolf Aldag was active with the Bahrain – Victorious team. Before that he also worked for HTC - Highroad, Quick-Step, Dimension Data and the women's team Canyon - SRAM.
Rolf Aldag:
"I'm really looking forward to my new job at Bora - hansgrohe and to the trust that Ralph Denk has placed in me. But I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Enrico, because thanks to his good and continuous work in the past, we are able to tackle new goals at an absolutely world-class level.”
Not only the driver squad is experiencing a change
A lot will change at Bora – hansgrohe for the coming season. Figurehead Peter Sagan will leave the team, as will sprinter Pascal Ackermann. Among others, Sam Bennett, Jai Hindley, Sergio Higuita and Aleksandr Vlasov join the team.
team boss Ralph Denk:
"In the last few months, I've become more and more aware that if we want to develop further as a team, we probably need a change in the sporting management. It's not that I'm unhappy with the results - we've all done a good job together over the past few years - but cycling has changed and we need to adapt to this change to keep up. Many routines have crept into the sporting leadership during the long time together, which are incredibly difficult to change. That's why I decided to break new ground here. We have many young drivers in our ranks and would like to build them up strategically and calmly. To this end, we have defined clear goals in recent weeks and redistributed tasks internally. As far as the sporting direction is concerned, we are in the final stages of our planning.
Poitschke has achieved a lot with Bora – hansgrohe
Team boss Ralph Denk did not find it easy to switch from Poitschke to Aldag, as he mentioned again in the press release. After all, the team has achieved a lot with the Saxon. From the third division team to the WorldTour team, he played a key role in shaping the team.
Ralph Denk:
“That was probably the most difficult decision of the last ten years for me, because I owe Enrico a lot of gratitude. We worked our way up from the 3rd division to the WorldTour together, going through pretty much every ups and down you can imagine. I will always have fond memories of these moments together.”
Enrico Poitschke:
“Of course I'm disappointed and the decision came as a surprise to me too. I have built up the team together with Ralph Denk over the past ten years and I think that we have done a very good job together.”
BREAKING: #BORAhansgrohe and Enrico Poitschke go separate ways: Rolf Aldag to become new Sports Director. Read more here: https://t.co/Q12JL1lTaT pic.twitter.com/rY5LmLM3Rz
- BORA - hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) October 4, 2021