2021 Team Preview: Bora-Hansgrohe PRINT

Thus we come to one of the powerhouses. Perhaps at time these riders who identify as a Band of Brothers fly under the radar, for this team’s personality is fairly homogeneous—save for their great superstar. Let us not even delay or relegate him to the second paragraph, let us speak of him now. O! How he has won our hearts so! Despite a seemingly lackluster 2020 season with only one victory, he is still so high in our minds as cycling fans, I name him now: the Rockstar of Cycling, Peter Sagan. Amidst this armada of German talent, Sagan towers above the rest, no matter the results. As stated, he won only once last year, but what a win it was on the Stage of Walls at the Giro d’Italia. It was his first and highly anticipated participation in the Giro. Coming out of lockdown where his “house-arrest” training could not have been of much quality compared to his contemporaries who can spin hours away on Zwift, Sagan had a relatively dismissal Tour de France by his standards. No stage wins, and he didn’t even win his most signature Green Jersey competition that he has basically owned for almost a decade. But he came to the Giro instead of what remained of the Classics season in the Fall. He was on better form, but Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) was in a higher class in the pure sprints. Thus it was that Sagan grabbed the bull by the horns on Stage 10. Riding in the breakaway he maintained a narrow and tenuous lead over the GC favorites that were battling behind on the final steep climbs. He became the 100th rider to join the club of stage winners in all three Grand Tours that day—an achievement he needed to tick off in his career. But now, what does 2021 hold for the man? This Rockstar of the sport? Rumor is the usual full Spring Classics campaign, a surprising return to the Giro once more, and an appointment in Tokyo come August. A busy season, a season so busy perhaps he shall skip that biggest stage in the sport: the Tour de France itself. It sounds unthinkable, but with the rumor of two-week quarantines for the athletes before the Olympics and the Tour only finishes six days before, everything is truly up in the air for all. At 31 though, after a decade at the top of the sport, how hot is the fire in Sagan’s belly? His rhetoric implies very, but his results the past few seasons do not line up. The results for his whole career too are not as deep as all thought or would wish. But the individually quality is there. At 31, perhaps all thoughts and goals of bountiful quantities of Classics and Grand Tour stage wins should be throw out the window; and all thought poured into achieving only the highest quality wins still, and only for the biggest of stages. Though Sagan is the President of the “Makes-Our-Day” Club—where every day he wins is automatically a good day—I would not mind him exchanging a dozen minor victories for one or two all time phenomenal days like his Giro stage win was last year. With all of that said, let us move on to the talented riders Sagan unfairly—but understandably—overshadows.

He overshadows the rest, because perhaps they really are a Band of Brothers: the Bora Brothers who all have stereotypical German names, and most have indistinguishable characteristics. Paschal Ackermann separates himself as one of the best sprinters in the world, but for some reason it is always surprising when he does dominantly well in a Grand Tour. But when it comes to Schachmann, Buchmann, Grossschartner, Konrad? Who is who? Which was the one that got 4th in the Tour in 2019? Which won Paris-Nice before lockdown? Who is the best stage hunter? Which were the stage races where one took stage win after stage win, and another bagged the overall leader’s jersey at the end? If Kamna’s success had not come so recently, I probably could not tell him apart either. At least Lukas Postlberger and Cesare Benedetti each have one solo day of Giro fame where the wins excited and moved us. Nils Politt, another German whose character thickens their ranks of homogeneous personality. They bring on Wilco Kelderman this year from Sunweb, after he got third at the Giro this past year, at least he is an established veteran though his Dutch persona now appears suspiciously German in this bunch.

When I say such things about this Band of Brothers, I mean it, but do not say it maliciously or with ill intent—I state only challenging realities that I cannot deny for at least myself. Despite not being able to distinguish the individuals, I can fully acknowledge they are a such a powerful team with or without big or many results from their undisputed leader, Peter Sagan. I assume they shall win many high-level week-long stage races as they have in years past, such as Paris-Nice, Tour of the Basque Country, perhaps Tirreno-Adriatico or Volta a Catalunya, Tour of Poland or BinckBank Tour. Their roster has just proven to be so quietly full of talent in every area of the sport. Besides Sagan, they are truly one of the least flashy teams—surely they would be more flashy without him—but they are still make their presence felt each by wining many dozens of races including some of the highest and most prestigious of quality. Sagan may be a question mark this year with many objectives and fiercer competition than ever on the highest stages where he is not getting any younger, but around Bora-Hansgrohe as a whole? There are not questions marks whether this Band of Brothers shall achieve results, the only question will be how much.

Team Preview 2021: Bahrain Victorious

A third head scratcher in a row. I feel this team is getting a raw deal. Last year, they struck out to build a new culture of success, to develop a formula to contend with the best teams in the world. The excitement and drive last year seemed to come from their new sponsor McLaren, that elite sports car company. But with the pandemic, McLaren has pulled out and Bahrain is left to its own devices once more. They have added Victorious to their team title, is this a sponsor? A dubious calling of shots? Who’s to say? Who can tell? There is talent on this team, but can it be harnessed and drawn together to compete across the calendar? I remember Bahrain’s best day last year was on the Col de le Loze stage at the Tour when five of their men shredded the peloton up the climbs—breaking even the might of Jumbo-Visma—to set up team leader Mikel Landa. Alas! Landa could not finish off the job, but it was an impressive showing nonetheless. As they go into this season, I hope they can kindle days like that once again here.

Thus Mikel Landa begins his second year of finally having sole leadership of a team. He finished fourth at the Tour last year with about as clear a run at the GC as he could ask for; what shall he achieve this year? It would be in his interest to simply target the Grand Tour with the least time-trialling and most climbing. Obviously, climbing is his strength and time-trialling is his Achilles Heel. Too often he has crashed, too often he has gotten sick, too often he has dropped minutes on the GC (General Classification) in the time trials. For years and years, we have heard rumors of his climbing skills away at team camps and in training. In the races, he has proved to be able to climb with the best—but very rarely is he ever The Best climber. Alas! I feel every Grand Tour he his missing one last gear or his lungs are only taking in 95% of the oxygen they possibly can; add in the regular floundering—or at best non-detrimental—time trials, and I think it explains why he has never finished higher than 3rd in a Grand Tour. But as I said, he should have sole team leadership at which ever Grand Tour(s) he attends, at 31 years of age it is not too late to finally pull off the Grand Tour victory. Keep trying, Mikel! Persevere!

The next two on the GC pecking order is the returning Wout Poels and the newly imported Jack Haig (formerly of Mitchelton-Scott). For years, Wout Poels was one of Team Sky’s greatest domestiques: colloquially known as Third Week Wout, for that is when in a Grand Tour he could be counted on most. But last year he struck out on his own to be a rider of higher stature at Bahrain. He rode the Tour in support of Landa where, if memory serves, he crashed early and had to nurse a handful of broken ribs all race. Yet still he was able to serve Landa in those finally days; yes, Third Week Wout once more. And he finished his season with a 6th place Overall at the Vuelta a Espana—a good hit out in what was seemingly a GC debut. At 33 years of age, his window of peak years must be closing, what shall his objectives be this year? I cannot guess. Nor can I guess for the Australian Jack Haig. His 2020 season was initially good before lockdown, but his achievements afterwards were sparse. For a while it seemed he was the next big Australian GC hope, but at 27 years old he is being upstaged by compatriots like Jai Hindley placing second at the Giro though he is more than a hand of years younger. What his goals shall be and what are his wild ambitions I do not know…a running theme with this Bahrian Victorious team. Additionally too, Pello Bilbao finished 16th this year in the Tour and turned around two weeks later to ride the Giro where he finished 5th; that is a quite a double in my eyes! To which I inquire, does not this 30 year old also deserve a clear GC run at something?

Soon to be 31, what does Sonny Colbrelli still have left, after an anonymous 2020? Where have gone the days of his 2017 where he took that electric Brabantse Pijl victory? The same is true for Matej Mohoric and Dylan Tuens. Matej, besides sneaking back into that final Liege selection right before the sprint, where were you in 2020? The same question, but even more so for you, Dylan Tuens. In 2019, you won a stage of the Tour, in previous years you won the Tour of Poland; but this past year I cannot even comprehend the logical behind your race schedule. Phil Bauhaus, besides victory at the Saudi Tour, did you even race? Fine, fine, yes there was a pandemic; the year was a wash. But now, I tell you, the pressure is on for 2021 and the competition shall only become stiffer!

Among the rest of the ranks are some notably strong and veteran domestiques from Central Europe. Can these elder statesmen set up the younger lads for success? How desperate is this team for an identity or a signature victory? I say again, on the Queen Stage of last year’s Tour they were the men of the match—driving the pace, but what else have they done of note? With their construction-orange uniforms they remind me of “Bob the Builder,” but what are they building? Are they building? What shall be their targets this year? Where are their best chances to win? Please do not misunderstand me. There is no doubt they are a talented group, there is no doubt they can work as a team. But they seem a team on the periphery off to the side, that no one is talking about, no one knows what they will accomplish. Let them surprise us all. May they take a great victory for their Victorious namesake.

Team Preview 2021: Lotto Soudal

And now we come to the other Belgian World Tour team. Are they the Man City to Man United? The New York Mets to the New York Yankees? The White Sox to the Cubs? The Clippers to the Lakers? At times perhaps, at times certainly in the international media. Ah! But this team is more home-grown, this team is more authentically Belgian than the Quickstep All-Star team with its revolving door of imported and exported top talent. Thus perhaps the second fiddle comparison is not so applicable…though the rivalry with Quickstep is often there. What shall Lotto Soudal achieve this year? Their lineup looks highly respectable as ever, but there is not much new—nothing to be novel-ly to be excited for. Perhaps we should just dig in, and see what we can see. Perhaps once we turn over some stones, we shall find somethings that surprise us and excite us.

We begin with Caleb Ewan, the Pocket Rocket. He was the best sprinter at the 2019 Tour taking three stages. He took two more in 2020, but was matched and outdone by Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) who took two himself and the Green Jersey. He finished his season at Scheldprijs with a win, usually a big objective for the sprinters—but was it this year? Given Bennett’s Green Jersey and FDJ’s Arnuad Demare’s scorching post lockdown 14 wins, at best Ewan can be tied for best sprinter of the year, but should most likely be set below them. But now we turn the page to 2021, shall he reclaim the mantle as the top sprinter in the world? He will not have his native Tour Down Under to rack up early wins—and more importantly, an early source of confidence. Judging from the headlines, perhaps he shall target stages in all three Grand Tours—interesting, it would be quite a feat to win a stage of each, but I would more so appreciate seeing him finish whichever he starts. Either way, he is small, he is light, he is fast, he will be in the mix with the top sprinters.

Shall we cover that endearing Belgian duo next? Thomas de Gendt and Tim Wellens. What shall both achieve this year? De Gendt had a lackluster 2020 season, and he would be the first to admit as much. He was not anonymous, but he was not shaking up the races as he usually does. Thomas de Gendt one of the greatest breakaway specialists that has ever lived is now 34 years old. At times he is such a tank, he seems ageless; last year was the first and only time I have questioned his age. I hope is fire is still hot and ready for a full 2021 campaign of breakaway stage hunting heroics. Which stages has he picked out? What targets has he already required? Has he earmarked the routes and profiles that suit him best in the roadbooks…or in this 21st Century are the profiles bookmarked on his computer? Thomas, gird thy loins, strike out for more lone wolf victories that dazzle our hearts and gain you great renown; surely, I greatly wish to cover them. Meanwhile his bike-packing partner in crime is younger Tim Wellens who in characteristic fashion ended his season well, winning two brilliant stages of the Vuelta on the uphill sprints that are his bread-and-butter. Shall this be the year Wellens hits out and takes a couple of stunning victories in the middle of the season, when the competition is fiercest? Tim, how long must you make us wait to cheer you on to victory in an Ardennes Classic or Tour stage? Surely, now is the time!

But there is one result every cycling fan must be rooting for as well. Just the one more result one certain Lotto Soudal rider needs to complete his career in a way only three other riders have done before. Yes, I speak of Philippe Gilbert, the now veteran Philippe Gilbert. Though he will ride for victory in many other races, there is only one left that he is truly chasing after with all his thought. The one that is trickiest to win, Milan-Sanremo. Of the Five Monuments, he has won Liege and then il Lombardia twice—races on paper tailor-made to his characteristics. But after a spell of almost dormant or hibernating years, when all thought he was well over the hill: he stunned us all which his audacious long-range solo attack to win the Tour of Flanders in his Belgian Champion’s Jersey in his first year with that powerhouse Quickstep team in 2017. And in 2019, he absolutely mesmerized us with his thrilling Paris-Roubaix victory; a race we all thought was a bridge too far for the man—how wrong we were, for Gilbert stomped his authority over such a race. But he moved on from Quickstep last year, perhaps for the very reason they had too many other options to send in the race that now matters most to him. If Gilbert were to win Milan-Sanremo, he would become only the 4th rider to win all Five Monuments of cycling. It is an accomplishment only three compatriots have pulled off: Eddy Merckx, Roger de Vlaeminck, and Rik Van Looy—what an honor it would be to be counted amongst them! Thus once more, I have my top “favorite” to win Sanremo. Surely Gilbert can do it, but will he? It is a race that has been won by Quickstep’s Mark Cavendish and Fabian Cancellara, Trek’s Vincenzo Nibali has won it while Caleb Ewan has come in second behind him. The race is chaotic and explosive, seven hours of grinding racing decided in one decisive finale that is less than 10 kilometers. Will the race play out in Gilbert’s favor? I hope so, but we shall find out in March.

And what shall the others do? Will John Degenkolb finally have a season of racking up many victories as his did in the seasons before his fateful and horrifying training accident? Shall he take at least one special victory, like he did in 2018 on the Tour’s cobbled Roubaix stage? Surely, all wish him the best. What about Matt Holmes and Tomasz Marcynski? Both have struck gold before! Last year, Holmes was the man to finally snap Ineos’ Richie Porte’s Willunga Hill dominance at the Tour Down Under. A few years ago, Marcynski had that pair of marvelous Veulta stage successes, can he roll back the clock after 36 winters? And who else shall step up? This roster is filled with local Belgians, surely all of them have grown up watching the Classics. Surely, all have daydreamed someday they might win Flanders, Roubaix, or Fleche, or Liege. Yes, at the top the lineup has not changed much and that is reflected in minimal changes to the uniform as well: the same black shoulders with red and white torso and lettering. They shall be competitive as ever, but shall they turn up any or how many massive or legendary wins this season?

Team Preview 2021: Groupama—FDJ

Thus we come to the quintessentially French team of Groupama-FDJ. The French insurance group and the national French lottery join forces to sponsor this team that is seen so often on those French roads. I do not really know what to make of this team—it is another head scratcher for me. I think part of the reason for this is that after all these years it is pretty clear this team’s security does not depend on results alone. So long as their stars are in the spotlight, all press is good coverage for them.

This is never more so true than with their biggest star, Thibaut Pinot. A Rollercoaster if ever there was one. At times he looks unstoppable, and just as everyone—especially the French—get behind him: he seems to get in his own way, producing a crash and burn so spectacular no one ever envies his position. Third at the Tour in 2014, since then his record at the Tour has actually been fairly dismal. But who could forget what flying form he was on in 2019 when he won the stage to the top of the mighty Tourmalet, it was sensational! But just a handful of days later, he was out of the race with a knee injury; and it will still take many years for us all to forget the sadness we felt watching him weeping his eyes out as he got into the car. He really thought he was going to win the Tour de France that year. And last year, in 2020, his challenge was subpar. After a crash on Stage 1, he supposedly needed three hours of treatment on his back each day to be fit to race, but by the eighth stage he was already out of contention. And he seemed to have lost his mojo for the rest of the race as well. Ah! What can we expect from him this season? What can we ever expect from this man? Surely, it is our lot in life to hope for the best for this man. Every year we shall be sucked-in and fooled by his progression, hoping against hope that this is the year he finally finishes off the race well. And then we shall be surprised and disheartened when he fails once more. We shall go back to the drawing board, knowing we are doomed to repeat the same emotional Rollercoaster next year. Yes, yes, Thibaut Pinot you are the Rollercoaster. But all shall climb aboard once more to join you for highest highs and lowest lows.

Now, the rider that had a much better season than Pinot was Arnaud Demare. Besides perhaps Primoz Roglic and Wout Van Aert (both of Jumbo-Visma) was there anyone hotter coming out of lockdown. Fourteen wins, fourteen wins after lockdown! An incredible tally! Milano-Torino, the French Championships, and four stages of the Giro. What a haul it was! His support crew at the Giro was impeccable this year, surely he and his men deserve a ride at the Tour this year, no? But even before it is time to think of the Grand Tours, what can he do in the Classics? He has taken some epic wins in Paris-Nice when the race is in the harsh and unforgiving cross-windy north of France. For a sprinter, his record at Paris-Roubaix is actually pretty good: twice top 20, once top ten. Should the race be relatively controlled and end with a reduced bunch sprint, surely he could be the victor. And what about possibly winning another Milan-Sanremo—this time without any accusations of getting towed up the Poggio by the team’s car? Even Gent-Wevelgem or Scheldprijs could be in Demare’s wheelhouse. Should he enter this season with the form he had last year, the world is his oyster. Surely, should he be on that top form, Groupama should have a new team No. 1. Perhaps Pinot can still be first in the hearts of all the fans, but in terms of leadership Demare should draw more water.

Surely Pinot and Demare are the pillars this team is built around. Most of the team file in as climbing domestiques for Pinot or lead-out men for Demare. But two other riders stand out, though they usually dutifully work for Pinot, they are proper talents and winners in their own rights. Stefan Kung, the Swissman, is one of the finest time-trialists in the world. He took the bronze medal in the Time Trial World Championships this year in Imola, surely he must have eyes on another medal in Tokyo this year. And then there is perhaps Pinot’s understudy or apprentice: David Gaudu. After knocking on the door for many years, this year at the Vuelta he took two stages. They were exciting, they were a fulfillment of what we have been waiting for. But surely or hopefully, they were only a building block for this coming season. What shall be his objectives? What shall he achieve this season?

As I said from the top, this team’s identity is clear. Their existence is not based off results, but press in their homeland. Surely, the team even plays up the idea that they are France’s team with their Blue, White, and Red jerseys appearing almost like the tricolor of France itself. Shall Demare rack up wins upon wins? Shall Gaudu continue to grow and improve, gaining more great victories? How shall Thibaut Pinot the Rollercoaster fair? It does not so much matter, so long as they are there. Could any of us really imagine a Tour without this iconic cycling team?