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Teams & Riders The Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe team thread

Page 34 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
You use Tour as Vuelta prep?

Or maybe he gained some weight so he can pull harder on the flats 🤣
Unironically that might not be the worst idea. Then again, you're riding for Roglic who has a history of crashing and is getting older, so I'd assume you prep just like you did last year when you were the man. Chances are you will end up stronger than him anyways in the 3rd week, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Hindley who's just garbage atm.
 
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The team said they were riding to an invisible finish line on Saturday's stage 1 (which 5 riders having a point to reach in the stage before falling back). They're doing energy conservation right now - the same way they rode the first stages of the Dauphiné conservatively as well.

I don't get the meltdowns. They'll be where they have to be in week 3.
 
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Ralph Denk mentioned that the Problem was not Hindley and Vlasoc, the Problem was with Jungels and sobrero. The should have Done the positioning in the run to the Galibier, but they weren‘t able to deliver as good as Expected (no shame for that the Tempo was brutal) so Vlasov and hindley had to work earlier and due to this they were Not as fresh as they should be in the Mountain.

And thats the bigger problem. Bora Needs Medium Mountain/roleur domestiques on the absolut high Level. But if you can Trust the rumors the are adressing this weakness
 
Aleks should have been in the Bernal group, that's his place and he missed it for mere 20 seconds. Anyways it's been known for a while that he suffers a lot on the high mountains.

He is always going to be a low Top10 rider for GTs unless he finds himself in a TT friendly course and weak field - Giro 2024 would have been his chance for podiuming a GT if he had been sent instead of DFM.

Regarding Hindley, he has been subpar for the whole season since Tirreno.
 
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Pretty nice articel from GCN with some new insights to the team.

Most of all Ralph Denk made a clear statement that they will not buy "Stars" in the summer because they are to expensive (Philipsen) or have a contract (Remco). They want to identify talents and develop them. Bora is in the final steps of starting a new U23 team which should fill the gap of the worldclass U19 team and the World Tour team.

Ralph Denk is also talking about the available spots in the team for new joiners, he mentioned that there a up to 8 spaces free.
So now its the big question which riders are leaving and which contracts will be renewed.

According to procyclingstats the following ten riders have a valid contract for 2025:

- Roglic
- Welsford
- van Poppel
- Adria
- Hajek
- Herzog
- Martinez
- Mullen
- Wandahl
- Maciejuk

There are some rumors about a already signed 3 year deal of Vlasov and Denk mentioned "good talks" with Hindley so i´ll think they are both save for the next season.

Laurance Pithie seems like a done deal as a new rider. Giulio Pellizziari (Bardiani CSF) was mentioned some months ago as a done deal.

There are some must do contract extensions:
- Meeus
- Kämna
- Sobrero
- Lipowitz
- Haller

Some should do extensions:
- Schachmann
- Jungels
- Zwiehoff
- Aleotti
- Denz
- Koch
- Gamper

Buchmann was linked to a french team (maybe Cofidis?) and in my opinion this would be perfectly fine for the team and the rider. Higuita has not the results he had back in 2022 and becaus of his size he is not a very helpful domestique. Maybe he would fit to Movistar?

Im not sure about the two german riders Palzer and Lührs. I would resign Palzer because i like him, but thats nearly the only reason. Lührs is a solide domestique, but i´ll think if the team wants to take the next step that it needs an uprgrad to such riders. Lührs clearly showed that one or two years in the U23 ranks are necessary for some riders.

Benedetti - i don´t know if he wants to ride another season, but i´ll think its his last season.

So there are 5 riders leaving (in my scenario) plus the one free spot from this year. Denk mentioned 6 to 8 new riders, so in my scenario all contract extensions happen. Maybe one of the riders have different plans or some of the riders are seen different by the team. If i had to choose two more riders i would choose Koch and Aleotti.

Who should join the team?
Pithie and Pellizziari as nearly done deals.
I would suggest Tim Torn Teutenberg and Mikkel Bjerg to adress some weaknesses in the actual team (riders for the cobbles and rouleurs).
One spot could potentially go to former members of the U19 team, the most promising riders are Pajur, Kockelmann and Schrettl.
One spot open for a climber/GC Rider - any suggestions?
Some more news from Benson were coming in, can´t read everything (its behind a paywall - maybe one of you read the whole articel?), but i´ll try to do a short update.

Lets start with the contract extensions which happend in the last weeks.

- Vlasov
- Hindley
- Denz
- Lipowitz

On the other side Benedetti announced his career ending. Buchmann will not renew his contract with Bora. Higuita is linked with 3 other world tour teams, Kämna is heavily linked with Lidl Trek (i´m sad about this), but Denk mentioned some days ago that the team wants to extend the contract with him. He also mentioned that a contract extension with Schachmann is complicated because he does not like to extent contracts with a smaller wage than the existing one. So if Schachmann can deliver some results in the coming races than maybe this will happen, but i think that Schachmann is also leaving.

These riders are still unknown
- Aleotti (was mentioned in the Benson news but i don´t know what it says about him)
- Jungels (some rumours about leaving, but also Denk mentioned that he is making a transition to road captain, that sounds like a possible contract extension for me)
- Sobrero (no rumours in any direction)
- Koch
- Palzer
- Lührs
- Zwiehoff (he was a guest in a german podcast and there it sounded like hes not leaving, but its more or less a guessing from my side)
- Meeus
- Gamper
- Haller (mentioned as free agent)

News about incoming riders:

- Pellizzari
- Tim van Dijcke
- Mick van Dijcke
- Finn Fisher-Black
- Jan Tratnik
- Oier Lazkano
- Laurance Pithie

According to PCS and the news. 14 Riders with a valid contract for next year + 7 new riders = 21 Riders
27 Riders already safe for next season according to benson. This means that some more riders have a valid contract or already signed a renewal.
So i think Aleotti, Jungels, Sobrero, Meeus, Zwiehoff, Koch already signed contract extensions.

The open contracts or talks with Gamper, Haller, Schachmann and Kämna are for the last 3 spots and maybe one new addition?
Palzer and Lührs are out or will join the Devo Team (just my opinion).

Any additions?
 
Some more news from Benson were coming in, can´t read everything (its behind a paywall - maybe one of you read the whole articel?), but i´ll try to do a short update.

Lets start with the contract extensions which happend in the last weeks.

- Vlasov
- Hindley
- Denz
- Lipowitz

On the other side Benedetti announced his career ending. Buchmann will not renew his contract with Bora. Higuita is linked with 3 other world tour teams, Kämna is heavily linked with Lidl Trek (i´m sad about this), but Denk mentioned some days ago that the team wants to extend the contract with him. He also mentioned that a contract extension with Schachmann is complicated because he does not like to extent contracts with a smaller wage than the existing one. So if Schachmann can deliver some results in the coming races than maybe this will happen, but i think that Schachmann is also leaving.

These riders are still unknown
- Aleotti (was mentioned in the Benson news but i don´t know what it says about him)
- Jungels (some rumours about leaving, but also Denk mentioned that he is making a transition to road captain, that sounds like a possible contract extension for me)
- Sobrero (no rumours in any direction)
- Koch
- Palzer
- Lührs
- Zwiehoff (he was a guest in a german podcast and there it sounded like hes not leaving, but its more or less a guessing from my side)
- Meeus
- Gamper
- Haller (mentioned as free agent)

News about incoming riders:

- Pellizzari
- Tim van Dijcke
- Mick van Dijcke
- Finn Fisher-Black
- Jan Tratnik
- Oier Lazkano
- Laurance Pithie

According to PCS and the news. 14 Riders with a valid contract for next year + 7 new riders = 21 Riders
27 Riders already safe for next season according to benson. This means that some more riders have a valid contract or already signed a renewal.
So i think Aleotti, Jungels, Sobrero, Meeus, Zwiehoff, Koch already signed contract extensions.

The open contracts or talks with Gamper, Haller, Schachmann and Kämna are for the last 3 spots and maybe one new addition?
Palzer and Lührs are out or will join the Devo Team (just my opinion).

Any additions?
Nice summary.
Regarding the open spots I would prefer a mountain domestique or someone young like Marco Schrettl.

Otherwise the incoming rider are really strong and will improve the overall quality of the roster!

Reg. Lenny: Such a shame, really. I like him a lot. I guess he sees a lot more freedom at Lidl. Whom do they have for GC and mountains who are stronger or on par with him? It’s like Skelmose, T.G-Hart and then Ciccone? That’s it basically .. so I can understand that kind of move.
 
Stage 9 will give us a clear picture about team's strength. We already know UAE is one step above Bora in the mountains.

AFAIK nobody argued that Bora is already ahead of UAE. The debate was more about if they are in top 3 or top 2 position already. Now, based on what we seen so far, for top 3 maybe, mostly due to Rogla, top 2 as a team, not ATM. Climbers section can still change that, though, during this Tour edition. I do see a possibility for toping Yates, Almeida and Ayuso on when it really matters. In my opinion it was never really a plan, to top UAE in week 1. Week one is mostly reserved for UAE, to do the talking.
 
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Let´s switch the focus a bit towards the new Development Team.

At the moment there are no big news about the new team, only that Benedetti is confirmed as a sports director.
From the U19 ranks i´ll think the following riders will step up (if they want to):

- Fietzke
- Casey
- Clemmensen
- Finn
- Kral

The following riders left the U19 program in the last years and are still connect to the cooperation partner Lotto Kern Haus:

- Kockelman
- Pajur
- Barta

Schrettl is riding for Tirol KTM which was a cooperation partner till the beginning of 2024.

So 9 riders maximum (if all wanna join and Bora want them to join). I think that more riders then that are needed to ride a decent calendar.

Maybe there will be some U19 riders added which are currently in other teams, if i can choose i would go for:

- Pavel Sumpik (i have no information if he already signed a contract)
- Paul Seixas (a bit unrealistic but maybe he hast not signed a contract with Decathlon yet)

As a suprise i would add Lennart Jasch a former ice skater who joined cycling this year and had some promising results at Oberösterreich Rundfahrt and a good result (for a newcomer) at the German Championship.

From the WT Team it seems very likely that Palzer and Lührs are not getting there contracts renewed, so maybe it will be an option for both of them to join the Development Team. Lührs is still U23 and can make a step back to maybe make two steps forward? Palzer wanted to ride a gravel race already this year so he can combine a bit of gravel and a bit of racing with the development team and a bit of racing with the world tour team in the smaller races.
I don´t know who far of this is, but for me it seems likely that the riders from the development team fill up the ranks of the WT team on a regulary base in non WT races. So that the "stars" of the WT Team can concentrate and peak on there highlights in the world tour and the development team riders can fill the gaps in races like Mallorca, Sibiu Tour, Czech Tour and so on.
Some news here today.
John Wakefield is going to be the head of development and will be in charge for the U19 and U23 program. Christian Schrot will leave the team.

In a different articel Denk mentioned that the never had the problem to identify the talented riders but it was not always possible to convince them to join because they were not able to match the career paths that other teams could offer (money of course is a big part to). But with the new structures they can close the gap structure and money wise.

The new devo Team will start with 12 riders and is likely to grow over the years. This means to me that they will ride a small calender with the focus on some highlights. This is what they are actually doing in the U19 at the moment.
Maybe Paris Roubaix Espoirs, Giro Next Gen etc.
 
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Some news here today.
John Wakefield is going to be the head of development and will be in charge for the U19 and U23 program. Christian Schrot will leave the team.

In a different articel Denk mentioned that the never had the problem to identify the talented riders but it was not always possible to convince them to join because they were not able to match the career paths that other teams could offer (money of course is a big part to). But with the new structures they can close the gap structure and money wise.

The new devo Team will start with 12 riders and is likely to grow over the years. This means to me that they will ride a small calender with the focus on some highlights. This is what they are actually doing in the U19 at the moment.
Maybe Paris Roubaix Espoirs, Giro Next Gen etc.

Very interesting choice, I wish him all the best.

Reg Schrot it sounds like it was his choice more or less.

Reg the new team, I am really curious which riders they can pray away from other dev teams as I think the Red Bull part is very interesting for young riders.

Also new head of scouting: Tim Meeusen. Not sure but I think he was also their scout until now.
Great to see how they use their newfound recources
 
Denk confirmed that Kämna is leaving. Denk wanted to see how his healing progress is before resigning him. Kämna then signed at different team, probably Lidl-Trek.
Trek signing everyone before they see how they have recovered (TGH and Kämna) is a bit concerning. You'd think everyone would be afraid of a rider pulling a Froome...

That said, maybe Bora could have offered Kämna either a 1 year deal right away or you wait to see how his recovery goes before offering a longer contract (2-3 years).
 
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Denk confirmed that Kämna is leaving. Denk wanted to see how his healing progress is before resigning him. Kämna then signed at different team, probably Lidl-Trek.
Understandable for Denk from a financial perspective , but to a rider suggests lack of confidence in their importance to the team and ablity to recover. Not surprising Kamma is off.
If they really wanted to keep him the situation should have been managed better.
 
Understandable for Denk from a financial perspective , but to a rider suggests lack of confidence in their importance to the team and ablity to recover. Not surprising Kamma is off.
If they really wanted to keep him the situation should have been managed better.
Agreed. But there's also another huge factor: Lidl wants the team to sign notable German riders. There aren't that many anymore that can deliver and Kämna (if healthy) is at the top of the list. Would be also no surprise if the take Schachmann into the roster. So Lidl is very motivated to sign Kämna and probably was in contact with him for monts also before the crash. So possibly the transfer would have been done either way.

Unclear where Bora (or RBBH) is heading in the future. i think the team is loosing there way and will probably not live up to the standard of the bad tasting drink that sponsors them. Was very sad to see Denk selling his shares but on the other side he is in the last 2 years a big part of the problem when it comes to the transfers losses and roster decisions. Lucky for him that Hindley won the Giro because without that the result of his shift and strategy would be much more questioned.