Simon Yates and Dylan Groenewegen to Tour de France, Caleb Ewan to Giro d'Italia - How Team Jayco AlUla may choose between it's leaders' goals

Team Jayco AlUla are boosting their ranks for the 2024 season but that also means having to make tougher choices. The team looks set on a provisional plan that sees Dylan Groenewegen and Caleb Ewan split goals amongst each other.

"It is never easy to manage two talented sprinters. But when I look at the race programme, I think it is quite possible," team manager Brent Copeland told Cyclingnews. After his fall-out with Lotto Dstny, Caleb Ewan has found a new home back with the Australian team. Jayco have already put a lot of focus into supporting Dylan Groenewegen but now find themselves with two sprint leaders, who will race different schedules but have similar ambitions.

"The big question is of course: what is our plan for the Tour de France? Every sprinter wants to compete in the Tour and win stages there," Copeland adds, explaining the provisional plan that the team has built recently: “We have decided that Dylan will ride the Tour de France and that we will have Caleb in the Giro d'Italia. We will see what will happen in 2025. They both get the chance to achieve many sprint victories during the season.”

Groenewegen has been there and thereabouts this season however didn't manage to bring in many high level victories - this has been made more difficult by Jasper Philipsen's winning spree of 2023. Ewan equally felt this, having finished second in a Tour de France sprint after a season that featured little results. Both have something to prove, now specially as both have each other as direct competition for the lead in the biggest races. This of course, may not be a disadvantage for the Australian team, which have another leader to score victories and points to it's tally.

Michael Matthews will be added to the mix but with his own schedule. Copeland also discusses the possibility of Simon Yates returning to the Tour de France, although it's been rumoured that he will be back at the Giro d'Italia in 2024: "The more leaders you have, the more difficult it is to manage and determine the competition programs. For Yates, we have yet to map out his key goals for 2024. He will probably aim for the Tour again, but we still need to discuss with Dunbar and Zana to put the final pieces together."