"The goal this season is to ride my first grand tour" - INEOS' Magnus Sheffield dreaming of Grand Tour debut

INEOS Grenadiers 20-year-old American Magnus Sheffield has set out his plans for the upcoming 2023 campaign, with his main goal being to secure a maiden Grand Tour ride.

“The goal this season is to ride my first grand tour, and experience what that is like for three weeks,” Sheffield reveals in an interview with Velo News. "Whether it’s the Tour or the Vuelta a España, either one could fit in quite well."

Sheffield's impressive debut season in 2022 which included three wins, already looks set to continue in the coming year after the young American rode to a 2nd placed finish in an opening prologue at the Santos Tour Down Under. “My first year with the team what I really wanted to do was to try a lot of different races, one-day races, one-week stage races,” Sheffield said. “I am super excited about how last year went. One of the big goals this year is to race a grand tour.”

Alongside his Grand Tour ambitions, Sheffield also has the spring classics on his mind. “Early on in my career I’d like to focus on the classics and the one-week stage races, but given my time trialling abilities, I feel like I can hold on to the peloton in some of the longer climbs, so we will see how I can do during three weeks,” he said. “Because the classics are a big focus in my program it’s a bit more difficult with the Giro. With the worlds in August, there are all these races I want to do, but you cannot do everything. I am hoping that I will have a long enough career that I can do all of them."