🇪🇸 #VueltaBurgos TTT win, two stage wins and the final classification for our riders in Spain. 🏆 Relive the race in photos! teamjumbovisma.com/image-gallery/…
"To win a team time trial, you need a real fast rider like an Edoardo Affini, Rohan Dennis or Wout van Aert" - Jumbo-Visma shrug off pressure to win Vuelta a Espana team time-trial
CyclingThursday, 24 August 2023 at 13:00
The Vuelta a Espana will begin with a team time-trial in Barcelona this year and it will be the first test for the teams in Spain. Jumbo-Visma are a team that specializes in the discipline and are big candidates to take the first lead of the race, however the team attempts to shrug off pressure.
"No, we can't really put everything in it, but that's the same for all team. It's a challenging course, but not extremely technical or anything like that," Jumbo-Visma coach Mathieu Heijboer told In de Leiderstrui. "I haven't seen it yet, but I've studied it with maps and Google Streetview. I don't think there are any extreme turns, but there are a lot of them, so you never really get into your rhythm. It is certainly not a team time trial that suits us, but we do have eight strong riders and we will sell our skins as dearly as possible."
On the contrary, the team will be having Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard, Dylan van Baarle, Jan Tratnik and Wilco Kelderman in their lineup, all of the very strong riders in the discipline who will with no doubt make it one of the big favourites for victory - if not the team to beat. Their strong win recently in a similar effort at the Vuelta a Burgos further cements this status.
"To win a team time trial, you need a real fast rider like an Edoardo Affini, Rohan Dennis or Wout van Aert," Heijboer aruges however. "We now miss that in our selection, but I don't think the team time trial will make the difference in the final classification. We have mainly kept in mind that we have very strong support both on the flat and in the mountains. With two leaders at the same height you are in principle one helper short, which you normally have in the Tour. On the flat we have Gesink, Van Baarle and Tratnik and uphill I think of Gesink again, but especially when it comes to forcing Kelderman and Kuss, and also a bit of Valter. Our selection is based on that."
By all means, an incredibly strong lineup, in no way affected by the team's efforts to win both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman and Dylan van Baarle come over from the Tour alongside Jonas Vingegaard, whilst Roglic comes in with strong form into the race after winning the Spanish stage-race this past week.
"Last year we knew that as the defending champion we would start last, now our start time is still a bit uncertain. We will have to make do with the conditions that exist then and hopefully it will stay dry, because that makes it a bit easier on this circuit," he concluded. With the team having a very big superiority to that of Soudal - Quick-Step, having it's leaders start off ahead of Remco Evenepoel could then prove to be a nightmare for the Belgian.
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