"It was the worst situation that could have happened" - BORA DS on Tour de France; Primoz Roglic and Daniel Martinez on long list for Vuelta a Espana

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe showed off a new name and colours into the Tour de France but the performance was in fact a complete disappointment. The team saw it's two GC leaders abandon the race, but the team has a lot of optimism that Primoz Roglic will still be able to contest for strong results in what is left of the season.

"I think it was definitely like that. We started with the ambition of fighting to win and secondly to fight for the podium and instead we found ourselves as the last team in the ranking of earnings, prizes awarded, which says a lot about how it went," team DS Enrico Gasparotto told Bici.Pro. "When you set a goal and your leader fails, everything changes. If then also the second leader, Vlasov, goes home it is even worse... We lost Vlasov in the gravel stage, where he suffered a fractured ankle. And three days later we lost Roglic due to a fall. It was the worst situation that could have happened to us".

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The German team was the one that earned the least in the three weeks which is a good sign of the plans having gone wrong. Nevertheless, they point towards their next goals pretty quickly, with it's many leaders. Both Primoz Roglic and Aleksandr Vlasov may race the Vuelta a España depending on their recovery: "From the first day a rider returns home, he already thinks about the next goal. And this also applies to Vlasov. Both were and are already on the long list of the Vuelta."

"I can say that Primoz has been at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center near Salzburg for tests and physical analysis and can resume training well. But be careful, with this I do not say that Primoz will be at the Vuelta. A decision will not be made before next week". Furthermore, the discovery of a vertebrae fracture may make it move difficult for the Slovenian to find his best level into the Spanish race, which he has already won on three consecutive occasions.

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Daniel Martínez was left out of the Tour, presumably to focus on the Vuelta a España after he finished the Giro d'Italia in second place. But in fact this is not certain, Gasparotto says that a decision on his program has not yet been taken. "He is part of the long list of the Vuelta, but it is not a given that he will go. Given his great versatility, Dani Martinez could also be diverted to one-day races like San Sebastian or short stage races."

For the team's climbers however, a big goal still remains in Il Lombardia as well. "Everyone is betting big on the Lombardia and obviously us too. We have several riders who can win it. I am thinking of Primoz and Vlasov who also finished among the first in the last edition and the same goes for Martinez and Hindley or Higuita".

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Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe

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