Danny van Poppel was surprised with BORA's removal of Sam Welsford from Giro d'Italia: "Perhaps they have just seen that I am currently better than my leaders"
Cycling
Danny van Poppel signed with BORA - hansgrohe in 2022 and in the role of a leadout man, quickly became one of the best and even the single best in the whole peloton according to many. However he has not had top sprinters to work with it seems, and is getting his own opportunity to lead the German team at the Giro d'Italia.
“I don't know why he's not here. You will have to ask the team the reason. But perhaps they have just seen that I am currently better than my leaders," van Poppel said in an interview with AD. “We started off great in the Tour Down Under, but after that it didn't go so smoothly anymore." After two year with Sam Bennett who frequently struggled with form - culminating at mutual frustration at the Tour of Britain last year where both were sprinting for themselves against Visma - the team signed Sam Welsford for this season.
Van Poppel began leadout duties for the Australian at the Tour Down Under and worked towards three stage wins. Afterwards, none. At the recent Tour of Turkey with a modest startlist, Welsford failed to finish inside the Top10 on any of the stages. He was set to be the head sprinter at the Giro d'Italia but was removed last minute - as was Emanuel Buchmann who was quite surprised. As happened at the Tour de France last year, Danny van Poppel remained in the lineup alongside the team's leadout, but now without a main sprinter. The Dutchman will fill the spot himself.
"The team chooses not to take Sam with them. Fine. Then it's up to me. And why not? I am a much better rider than I was three years ago," he argues. The team will have two outsider for the overall classification in Daniel Martínez and Florian Lipowitz whilst van Poppel will aim for the more hillier stages that can end in a sprint. "After a difficult race I can win. The team believes in it, and I believe in it.”
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- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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🍕 Hungry for success and stepping up for a slice of the #Giro action are: 🔹 Dani Martínez 🔹 Giovanni Aleotti 🔹 Patrick Gamper 🔹 Jonas Koch 🔹 Florian Lipowitz 🔹 Ryan Mullen 🔹 Maximilian Schachmann 🔹 Danny van Poppel Let's roll! 👊🏼
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