Indeed, I can't recall them ever having a true bunch sprinter. At least one who could compete in bunch sprints other than ones in the little French Cup races. Maybe the closest would be Dumoulin back in the day but he wouldn't count. I'm not sure you can say that about any other team in the peloton that's still around.
Jean Patrick Nazon and Jan Kirsipuu, legendary 00's sprinters!
Yauheni Hutarovich won a bunch sprint on stage 1 at the 2014 Tour de Pologne.
And its boring, just like the irrational dislike of WvA.
Worst thing was they weren’t able to bring the breakway back on a bog standard flat stage the next day and lost the jersey 🤣
www.uaeteamemirates.com
Awesome news for Pogi and maybe Ayuso if it comes to that.Politt to UAE is a done deal.
Nils Politt set to join UAE Team Emirates - UAE team Emirates
The first UAE World Tour cycling team
There are one million French sprinter races per year with very weak sprinting fields and AG2R just cedes them to the other French teams. Even the post-injury version of Bennett should be able to win a load of those. And if he recovers his old speed, then they have a guy who won at least one stage in all of his last five GTs. Even last year he won two Vuelta stages. He would be a good pick up for them assuming that he’s on a contract that is heavily weighted towards win bonuses.
I'm still not quite sure what went wrong for Bennett this year. But so many sprinters run hot/cold, so next year he could be a beast again. Worth taking a chance on, for sure.
IMO the level of big sprinter names seems pretty weak at the moment. If I were a DS for a big team, the only sprinters I would considered signing if available were Phillipsen, Koolj, De Lie and perhaps Milan (and Pedersen if you consider him as a sprinter). No to Bennett, Groenewegen, Ewan, Jakobsen, Gaviria and more.
If rumours are true they still have around 4 or 5 spots left
in 2021 he was completely dominant in the first half of the season, then picked up an apparently minor injury that turned out to be a big problem. It wiped out the rest of that season and he hasn’t ever seemed to have quite the same top speed since. Whether there is still some lingering physical effect or whether it’s now psychological or about the vagaries of form or just ageing I don’t know. Sprinting is fickle and all of his old rivals at the head of the sprinter field are also currently in form difficulties.
Schwarzmann is following Ackermann to Israel.
Selig is probably retiering then. Schwarzmann and Zabel as a leadout train. That's better then nearly no support for Ackermann.
Lotto doesn‘t renew Sepulveda?
Why?Lotto doesn‘t renew Sepulveda?
That would be extremely unfair… The guy begged for a new contract via Twitter last year, got one at Lotto, and showed a great, constantly good, season - including GC win at Castilla y Leon…
I hope Lotto will think better of it, and renew him… I see that they prefer to sign every second 20-year-old male Belgian that has ever ridden a bike, but Argentinean Sepulveda is a special guy, in a very good way…
Lotto doesn‘t renew Sepulveda?
That would be extremely unfair… The guy begged for a new contract via Twitter last year, got one at Lotto, and showed a great, constantly good, season - including GC win at Castilla y Leon…
I hope Lotto will think better of it, and renew him… I see that they prefer to sign every second 20-year-old male Belgian that has ever ridden a bike, but Argentinean Sepulveda is a special guy, in a very good way…
I agree, although I'd still rate Jakobsen. But for the money he wants? No thanks.
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