An exciting Grand Départ awaits the Tour de France peloton this year with the 21-day festival of cycling getting underway in Florence, Italy this weekend. Today Team dsm-firmenich PostNL announce their eight-rider roster that is set to take on the wide variety of parcours on offer over the three weeks as they hunt stage success.
Taking inspiration from the film Italian Job, the doors could be blown off the bunch on the opening stage where they face a challenging parcours to Rimini, while the puncheurs and climbers will fancy their chances again on stage two which borrows the famous San Luca climb from Giro dell’Emilia. The fast finishers in the peloton will be thankful to get an opportunity on stage three before the climbers or breakaway artists will do battle the following day as the race returns to French soil. A time trial, a mixture of sprint stages and those for opportunists, plus a gravel-filled stage nine round out the opening week of action. Week two is balanced between sprint stages and climbing days, but of course the barodeurs and breakaway specialists will no doubt toss their proverbial hats into the ring for stage glory too. The final week gets underway with the last sprint opportunity of the race before the route heads eastwards and not north, towards the grand finale in Nice. A couple of potential breakaway days sit amongst hard mountain days where those still in the GC battle will look to play their hands one last time, while the climbers will also set off in pursuit of stage glory. The race then ends with a spectacular and hilly time trial from Monaco to Nice; the first time that the Tour has finished with a time trial since 1989, and more amazingly the first time the race has finished outside of Paris in over 100 years.
Looking to build on their good recent form, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL are ready to take on the 21 days of action; aiming to ride smartly as a unit and pick their opportunities to go all-out for stage results throughout the Tour de France.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston said: “Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston said: “We’re looking forward to being on the start-line of the Tour de France once again. This year we come in with the sole focus of going for day results, whether that be in the sprint finishes, in the mountains or on the rolling terrain in between. We have an exciting group of riders who are all committed to that, but we will need to be smart about when and where we use our energy to maximise our chances. In the pure sprints we will go with Fabio as our finisher, with John, TDF debutant Bram and Nils as his final lead out. It’s good to have Nils back in action after his recovery from concussion, motivated and ready to go to complete this group in this sprints. In the hills and mountains we have the likes of Romain, Warren, Frank and Oscar – the latter two also on their TDF debut. We believe everyone in the team can play a role in the finale on the right stage and in the right circumstances. We will need to show good teamwork from the off as we can expect a hard start on the climbs in Italy, before some sprint opportunities after that. From that point there is a variety of parcours and terrain over the three weeks where we can be in the mix. We will look together as a team and make plans for the best possible way to approach each stage, so that we can show ourselves at the very front of the race.””
Fabio Jakobsen added: “I am really excited to take on my first Tour de France with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL. We bring a really strong group to the race that can go for stage success on every terrain. I have a nice group around me to target the sprint stages, but with Warren, Frank, Oscar, and Romain, we also have really strong riders for the hilly and mountainous stages. We aim to show strong teamwork and really fight for each other, and if we perform at a high level, I believe we can have a great race together. I can’t wait to get started.”
Line-up
Romain Bardet
Warren Barguil
John Degenlolb
Nils Eekhoff
Fabio Jakobsen
Oscar Onley
Frank van den Broek
Bram Welten
