Irish sprinter Sam Bennett has been named in the nine-man Bora-Argon 18 team which will line up at the Tour de France in two week’s time. It will be Bennett’s second appearance at the Tour having made his debut last year.
The team was announced earlier today at a press conference in Dusseldorf. in addition, the team also announced that they are to apply for UCI WorldTour licence for 2017.
“Our goal is to win a stage. In the last years we came close and finished on the podium, this time we hope it’s going to happen. We will have the best chances during a transition stage between the big mountains. For the general classification Emanuel Buchmann and Patrick Konrad are free to take their chances. If everything is going fine and we get through the first week without any crashes, a top 20 result in the GC is possible.” said Ralph Denk, team manager.
Regarding their World Tour ambitions, Denk said: “It would be a dream come true to be at the Grand Départ (in 2017) in Düsseldorf as a WorldTeam.”
“We will apply for a WorldTour license, and we are confident that we will get one. With regards to the 4 categories, that decide the awarding – sports, administration, finance and ethic – I think we have to get one.”
“Our loyal partner BORA will remain our first title sponsor. For the moment we cannot say anything about new sponsors. But with the budgets that are at our disposal for 2017 we will be able to significantly strengthen our squad. We aim to play an important role at the WorldTour races on the one hand, on the other we still want to support young, especially German talents and guide them to the top level of cycling.”
Bora-Argon 18 Line-Up:
Shane Archbold (New Zealand)
Jan Barta (Czech Republic)
Cesare Benedetti (Italy)
Sam Bennett (Ireland)
Emanuel Buchmann (Germany)
Patrick Conrad (Austria)
Bartosz Huzarski (Poland)
Andreas Schillinger (Germany)
Paul Voss (Germany)
have a good one Sam