Reigning highway world champion Mathieu van der Poel is heading to Zürich to defend his title on September 29, however the Dutchman will not be racing the Vuelta a España as preparation.
Van der Poel received final 12 months’s world title in Glasgow in August sizzling off the Tour de France however he will not have a current Grand Tour in his legs as he heads to Switzerland in late Septmeber.
In preparation for the 2021 and 2022 Worlds, he took on a collection of smaller one-day races in Belgium, such because the Gooikse Pijl and GP de Wallonie, and it appears seemingly that he’ll observe an identical path this time round as soon as he returns to racing following the Paris Olympic Games.
His Alpecin-Deceuninck workforce, in the meantime, will tackle the Vuelta a España with 2023 factors classification winner Kaden Groves main the eight-man choice.
The Australian sprinter received three levels final 12 months, together with the ultimate stage in Madrid. He’s nonetheless searching for his first win of the present season following 4 podium placings on the Giro d’Italia. The Vuelta appears more likely to be his remaining Grand Tour with the workforce forward of a mooted transfer to a new-look Astana workforce subsequent season.
Groves will likely be accompanied by seven males serving to him within the lead-out and searching for their very own possibilities to attain stage wins.
Juri Hollmann and Luca Vergallito will make their Grand Tour debuts because the race kicks off with a 12km time trial in Lisbon on August 17, whereas Edward Planckaert, Maurice Ballerstedt, Xandro Meurisse and Oscar Riesebeek additionally fill out the squad.
Alongside Groves, Quinten Hermans appears to symbolize the workforce’s finest possibilities at stage victory success on the Vuelta. The Belgian puncheur was on the rostrum at Liège-Bastogne-Liège two years in the past and this 12 months received a stage at Itzulia Basque Country and completed third on the hilly stage 12 of the Giro in Fano.
Alpecin-Deceuninck has a historical past of success on the race, profitable a number of levels at every of the previous three editions. In 2021, Jasper Philipsen delivered two dash wins, whereas two years in the past Jay Vine scored two breakaway mountain stage victories earlier than Groves proved the quickest sprinter in 2023.
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 Vuelta a España – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage because it occurs and extra. Find out extra.