Cycling
Bora plans for 2024: Kämna to the Giro, Tour victory with Roglic
Lennard Kamna starts a training session during the winter camp of the Bora-hansgrohe cycling team in Mallorca. photo
© Clara Margais/dpa
Only the Tour de France counts. With Primoz Roglic, Bora-hansgrohe wants to win the most important cycling race in the world. The best German tour driver can prove himself again in Italy.
With Lennard Kämna as captain at the Giro d’Italia and Primoz Roglic for the overall victory in the Tour de France, the top German team Bora-hansgrohe is heading into the new cycling season. The main goal is to win the tour with the Slovenian newcomer. “We won the Giro, the Tour is the next logical step. With Primoz it’s a perfect match. He was already second, of course he wants to go to the top,” said sports director Rolf Aldag in Mallorca.
At the Giro, like last year, Kämna gets his chance as a leader. “The top 5 is my dream scenario. I want to be better than last year,” said the man from Bremen. At the Giro 2023, Kämna finished ninth. For the 27-year-old, it was the first major national tour that he completed in the overall ranking. On the way to the Giro, like last year, Kämna will ride Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of the Alps. As a noble helper he has the Colombian climbing specialist Daniel Martinez at his side.
bora-hansgrohe to the tour without a sprinter
The core team for the tour has also already been determined. Roglic will be supported in the mountains by Jai Hindley, 2022 Giro winner, Alexander Vlasov, 2022 Tour fifth-place finisher and Martinez. In the flat and hilly stages, Nico Denz should keep the 34-year-old Slovenian out of any trouble. Bora-hansgrohe does not take a sprinter with him on the tour.
“We’re going into the tour with one leader, that’s Primoz. Everything else doesn’t make sense,” said Aldag. From May 1st, the tour team will compete in all races and training camps together and then challenge two-time winners Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. “I am very confident that we will win the Tour,” said Roglic. “We have a clear goal that we are working towards. Now it’s up to us to execute the plan.”
According to Roglic, Vingegaard, Tour winner in 2022 and 2023, is currently showing hardly any weaknesses. Aldag still made a difference. “Jonas and Tadej have won twice, we don’t have that yet,” said the 55-year-old. “What gets you out of bed in the morning? The things you haven’t achieved yet. We’re still a little under the radar, we’re still the underdogs for whatever reason. We want to take advantage of that.”