The season is nearly over, lets see where RB Bora hansgrohe can improve in the next season.
But first what does improve mean? For me improvent would be: more UCI points, more wins (obvious points), developing the existing riders and get a deeper squad and as last point be competitive in one day races.
When it comes to stage races Bora did ok this year. Some very good races (Vuelta, Dauphine, Romandie), some good races (Giro, Tirreno), some ok races (Catalunya) some bad races (tour, Basque, Pologne and Renewi). Of course the Tour de France was a bad race and frustrating that this happens in the most important race, but thats sports. Bory needs to learn out of it and improve to do better next year.
When it comes to one day races Bora did an awful job this year. Just Jordi Meeus and Roger Adria did a good job. Why did the other riders not perform on one day races? I think there are several reasons. Riders that could perform well in (hilly/mountain) one day races had the full focus on stage racing (Roglic, Vlasov, Hindley) and were out of shape in the important one day races. Also was Kämna injured nearly the whole season. He would have been a great rider for heavy one day races. For sprint and classic style one day races Bora didn´t had the squad to perform well. Riders like Denz, Koch, Haller do better as domestiques, so Meeus was the only rider who was competitive in sprint and classic style races and he delivered very well. Welsford had a huge start but then disappeared nearly complete.
What can be done? The most obvious thing is transfers and I think Bora delivered here and adressed a lot of the weaknesses. But I don´t want to talk about the incoming and outgoing riders (I did this in previous posts). I want to talk about highlights and season structure for the existing riders. What can be done that they perform better?
For me a possible solution is to let the rider focus more on races as you did with the Grand Tour riders for Giro (Martinez) and Tour (whole Tour squad). Therefor on big step was to implement the U23 team. Bora can fill, in non world tour races, the gaps with U23 riders and do not have to start with less then seven riders (which happend quite often this year) and some riders do not have to jump from race to race.
For me this means, that riders who still can develope into riders that can win races and deliver results a clear plan needs to be set up (i´m not talking about the Koch, Zwiehoff and Palzer typ of riders).
1. Wandahl: Focus on heavy one day races like Amstel, LBL, Canada races, Bretagne Classic and of course some not so high ranked races. I have the feeling that Wandahl is often there when it gets deep into the race but then misses the last bit, maybe if he gets his first grand tour this can unlock the last bit. Giro or Vuelta would be good to start.
2. Hajek: He showed his potential this year and should take the next step. In my opinion this should be the leadership in smaller stage races (Sibiu tour, Czech Tour, Tour de Hongrie etc). I can see him podium in such races and maybe win a stage or two. And maybe in the Vuelta squad a spot is left (unlikely but maybe due to injury or stuff like that)
3. Herzog: First full year with the pros. He had his up and downs. Pretty promising start in the classics where he showed himself in the breaks, good Tour of Oman, top ten in Milano - Torino (with better tactics a podium would have been possible for him). I think he still needs to figure out what type of rider he is and where his strengths are. For me he is a classic rider that can also survive races with a lot of vertical meters. Due to his background in mountainbiking maybe races like strade Bianchi, Classica Jaen, Paris Tours could be on his list too. So full focus on the spring, ride the classics as domestique to gain experience in this races and also go for results on his own in "smaller" classics, maybe in races like Tro-Bro Léon, Classica Jaen etc. In the second half of the season give him again some stage races like Ethias Tour de Wallonie and Renewi Tour. For me the most important thing with Herzog is to give him some races where he can race for his own results. I have the feeling that he can be a winning rider, but to be a winning rider you need to able to compete for yourself. Because if you are always helping the other riders, you are not able to develop the key skill of winning - making good decisions in the last part of the race.
4. Lipowitz: Co-Leader in a grand tours. For me the best would be the Giro (of course it depends a little bit on the parcours), because if this is not working out he can still adjust for the rest of the season. To dos for the winter: he is good at time trialing but to be in the mix for a Top 5 in a grand tours he needs to improve some more here. Healthy of season and good preparation and I think he is in the mix for a top 5 at the Giro.
5. Adria: He suprised me a lot in the second half of the season. Even his results in the spring (Amstel etc) were promising. But i still don´t know what kind of rider he exactly is. But for me its sure that we should not make a GC rider out of him. I would prefer to develop him into a stage hunter and one day racer that can be a helpful domestique. The combination of a good sprint and the good climbing skills makes him a good fit for this role. Maybe a Hirschi type of rider?
These are the five riders out of the existing squad which I would develop.
Any opinions?
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