The Tour de France has not been the race Ben O'Connor expected when he finished third at the Critérium du Dauphiné only behind Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, but the AG2R Citroën Team leader will be having a second chance as he leads the team's Vuelta a Espana lineup.
The Australian finished the 2021 Tour de France in fourth place and will be looking to replicate that performance in this mountainous edition. Bob Jungels, who had an otherwise fantastic Tour with a comeback to top form and a stage win, will be back in the peloton with likely similar goals to that of the Tour, with supporting O'Connor being one of them.
"Ben will be our leader for this Vuelta, which he always planned to ride. He left the Tour de France disappointed following his abandonment, so we will wait to see how he is feeling during the first stages to decide on a more precise objective," Team DS Julien Jurdie said. "His physical condition is good, he has prepared well. He comes to shine on the Spanish roads and to be among the best riders. Ben has the ability to excel in the general classification".
The team is likely to be chasing stages simultaneously, with the likes of Jaakko Hänninen and Nans Peters having shown their talent in the mountains, Clément Champoussin for the several hilly stages. Andrea Vendrame will also be a card, although he will also be a joker for the race's sprints. Dorian Godon and Nicolas Prodhomme complete the lineup, giving it more firepower to go for wins, but mainly to provide support for the team's likely GC ambitions.
AG2R Citroën Team for Vuelta a Espana: Ben O'Connor, Clément Champoussin, Dorian Godon, Jaakko Hänninen, Bob Jungels, Nans Peters, Nicolas Prodhomme and Andrea Vendrame.
Place comments
0 Comments
You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.
Show all comments