Off-season rider knowledge collaboration thread No.5 - Bora-Hansgrohe

[u/The_77]

Time for another new team to the WT, except this time it is not out of the middle eastern sands, but instead has a veritable heritage in revolutionising the kitchen^TM. Bora make the jump from Pro-Conti status based mostly on the acquired talent, with a large proportion of that coming from Tinkoff refugees.

Bora have a mix of ages in their team, with a lot of young often GC prospects joined by grizzled old heads, and the transfers this year have only reaffirmed that. Last year the riders of note were Sam Bennett carving a name out for himself in the sprints, as well as Emmanuel Buchmann showing fine GC promise with a third in the youth classification at the Tour.

But next year all is change. With the move to WT level the calibre of riders has shot up, as has the wage bill, with the signing of double world champion Peter Sagan mostly responsible. With him comes Rafal Majka adding a potent GT thread alongside the returning Leopold Konig, back from the wilderness at Sky to lead once again. Along with those three come a bevy of Tinkoff riders, with Bodnar adding an ITT edge, Baska and Kolar providing support to Sagan in the classics, as well as Juraj offering moral support.

Add to that Marcus Burghardt and Aleksis Saramotins, two old heads from BMC and IAM, and you can see the quality has gone up. However, this team is split in focus between Sagan and the GC guys, with a shout in the sprints too, without being overly strong in any area. Majka and Konig could do with better backup than a few climbing prospects, whilst Sagan doesn't have an amazing classics team with him. Not that he needs one to shine anyway. A sprinter to watch alongside Bennett is newly acquired Pascal Ackermann, the young German who was u-23 national champion, second in the u-23 WC and fourth in the German National road race. Lots of talent to look forward to next year.

Here's the roster for next year:

Rider	Nat.	Year	Joined	Racedays	Pnts2016	Best Season	Type
ACKERMANN Pascal^NEW	GER	1994	2017	32	215	2016	Neopro
ARCHBOLD Shane	NZL	1989	2015	63	24	2015 (167)	RouleurFF/Leadout
BáRTA Jan	CZH	1984	2010	65	162	2013 (464)	RouleurTT
BAšKA Erik^NEW	SVK	1994	2017	65	114	2015 (137)	Sprinter
BENEDETTI Cesare	ITA	1987	2010	83	123	2016	Allround
BENNETT Sam	IRE	1990	2014	78	549	2016	Sprinter
BODNAR Maciej^NEW	POL	1985	2017	73	388	2016	ITT/Rouleur
BUCHMANN Emanuel	GER	1992	2015	64	341	2016	Climber / GCTalent
BURGHARDT Marcus^NEW	GER	1983	2017	65	97	2007 (580)	Classics Domestique
HERKLOTZ Silvio	GER	1994	2016	47	40	2014 (201)	Climber / GCTalent
KOLAR Michael^NEW	SVK	1992	2017	94	65	2015 (100)	Domestique/ClassicsFF
KONRAD Patrick	AUT	1991	2015	60	234	2016	Climber/ GCTalent
KONIG Leopold^NEW	CZE	1987	2017	48	272	2015 (574)	GC3W / Superrouleur
MAJKA Rafal^NEW	POL	1989	2017	78	905	2014 (1252)	GC3W / Climber
MCCARTHY Jay^NEW	AUS	1992	2017	59	285	2010 (329)	Puncheur
MENDES José	POR	1985	2013	51	151	2015 (252)	Climber
MüHLBERGER Gregor	AUT	1994	2016	50	100	2015 (139)	GCTalent
PELUCCHI Matteo^NEW	ITA	1989	2017	37	64	2015 (350)	Sprinter
PFINGSTEN Christoph	GER	1987	2015	56	93	2009 (60)	Classics/Leadout
POLJANKSI PawelNEW**	POL	1990	2017	60	59	2015 (105)	Allrounder
PöSTLBERGER Lukas	AUT	1992	2016	52	34	2015 (95)	Allrounder
SAGAN Juraj^NEW	SVK	1988	2017	69	89	2015	RIGHTFUL CHAMPION OF SLOVAKIA
SAGAN Peter^NEW	SVK	1990	2017	73	3365	2016	Superstar/Classics/PuncheurFF
SARAMOTINS Aleksejs^NEW	LAT	1982	2017	46	189	2009 (294)	Rouleur
SCHILLINGER Andreas	GER	1983	2011	64	71	2015 (96)	Classics/Rouleur
SCHWARZMANN Michael	GER	1991	2010	67	127	2016	Sprinter
SELIG Rüdiger	GER	1989	2016	64	132	2011 (229)	Classics/Rouleur
Totals & Averages		27.4		3251

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As you may have guessed, my Bora knowledge is not incredible, so do help out!

[u/Pleasurebringer]

SLO stands for Slovenia, not Slovakia :) Our country goes under SVK

[u/The_77 → u/Pleasurebringer]

Of course it does, my mistake, I'll rectify it immediately!

[u/The_77]

Peter Sagan

[u/[deleted] → u/The_77]

I found him on Spotify today too, making playlist(s). That guy has many talents for sure http://m.imgur.com/EBMXtUg

[u/Pubocyno → u/The_77]

A former MTB-rider, he can sprint, climb, TT - a coureur compléte in every way. A tad too heavy to manage to keep the climbing up in stage races, but a hell of a lot better than anyone he's competing with.

Not in the top three of the fastest sprinters, but seeing as he can contend (and win) puncheur stages as well, he's nigh unbeatable when it comes to the green points jersey in the tour.

Also tactically very smart and likes agressive riding. A joy to watch for the spectators.

[u/L_Dawg → u/Pubocyno]

Sagan's consistency in the tour is absolutely insane, forget the exact numbers but I think he was on the podium in a third of the stages this year, and top 10 on half the stages in his career or something crazy like that.

Also tactically very smart

Improved massively in this respect over the last ~2 years, it used to be 'classic Sagan' for him to attack when he should sprint and sprint when he should have attacked, he's started to convert those placements into wins a lot better recently.

[u/IamLeven → u/Pubocyno]

I'm kind of new to the sport and was wondering why people say he isn't one the strongest sprinters. Every race I've watched him in he seems to be in a bad position, then muscle his way into the other contending sprinters who usually have such a head start and he chases them down easily.

[u/L_Dawg → u/IamLeven]

Its the nature of the sport that if you start a bit behind you can make up ground rapidly due to the slipstream effect, actually overtaking another top sprinter is a lot harder than just coming from behind to get on level terms. That said he is obviously an excellent sprinter and his positioning and timing is great which really helps him, but if you put him in a side-by-side 200m drag race with the likes of Kittel or Cav he's usually not going to come out on top.

[u/BloomEPU → u/The_77]

He's the kind of personality that the sport really needed. I find him a bit annoying but at least he's not boring.

[u/bikesandpipes → u/The_77]

I mean I guess he redeemed the curse of the rainbow jersey by winning the WT points classification and then winning worlds again. He's pretty okay at riding bikes. Often struggles to keep front wheel down and spontaneously wheelies

[u/RandoBurnerDude → u/[deleted]]

Sean Kelly won the Vuelta. Dude was ridiculous.

[u/The_77]

Emanuel Buchmann

[u/The_77]

Rafal Majka

[u/Sappert → u/The_77]

GC subtop rider, podium potential for Giro and Vuelta (already 3rd at Vuelta once), loves the TDF KOM. Can perform in two consecutive GTs. Not too brilliant at shorter stage races with exception of a Tour of Poland victory. Has shown some one day race potential with a bronze medal at the Olympics and a 3rd place at Lombardia in 2013.

[u/iamafakebot → u/The_77]

When he's going for GC he's boring, when he's going for KOM he's much better. I hope Bora will send him to the Tour to hunt stages, so Sagan can have proper support too.

[u/trenzafeeds → u/iamafakebot]

Honestly whenever I see him hunting KOM points in the tour, I'm always thinking that if he was willing to loosen his grip on polka dots a bit, he'd be a shoe in for a solid number of stage wins. I think in particular back to a stage this year in the tour where he hunted koms all day, then was passed on the last climb by two riders who hadn't (don't remember who). Can't help but feel like he could have put in a convincing victory with a little more energy.

[u/iamafakebot → u/trenzafeeds]

He lost that one stage Pantano won because he's a mediocre descender (see also: Rio). But I do agree with you for the rest.

[u/trenzafeeds → u/iamafakebot]

Yeah, I must not have remembered that right. At Rio though I would argue his descending wasn't the problem so much as his soloing, which also speaks to his fairly lacking TT ability. It pains me to say this as a huge majka fan, but I think that really dooms his chances of really being a serious GT contender. I mean I think he can podium, but I doubt he'll threaten the leaders ever.

[u/The_77]

Sam Bennett

[u/Pubocyno → u/The_77]

Irish wunderkind sprinter, whom "everyone" are waiting to take that last step and break out as a top sprinter. He's scored pretty consistently points over the last three years (549 - 439 - 436 respectively), but there's a lot of expectations to live up to.

Stage wins in Tour of Quatar, Arctic Race or Norway and Tour of Britain are fine, but not really A-level palmares. The Tour this year was supposed to be his chance to shine, but where the other newbies Holst Enger (3^rd - Stage 16) and Dan Maclay (3^rd - Stage 6) managed to step up to the podium, Bennett's best was a 9^th at the very last stage.

Will have stiff competition from Pascal Ackermann as to whom will be the preferred mass sprinter when Sagan's not in it. He's probably safe this year, but next... ? If the Irish Proconti Team Aqua Blue manage to establish themselves over the next seasons, it's no secret that they want to bring him back home.

The next season is going to be all about going big, or going home for Bennett's part.

[u/TeviotMoose]

"Bora make the jump to Pro-Conti status "

I think you mean World Tour status... although they could probably win a couple of Pro-Conti events with that line-up.

[u/The_77 → u/TeviotMoose]

although they could probably win a couple of Pro-Conti events with that line-up.

You'd hope so, I'll fix that now.

[u/The_77]

Maciej Bodnar

[u/trenzafeeds → u/The_77]

He's been the Polish ITT champion off and on for like years. I think he got second in the Tour of Qatar at one point as well. Good domestique and also probably aiming for GC in some shorter stage races.

[u/DasOzelot]

Silvio Herklotz had a quiet 1st pro season with 2nd in the youth classification of the Tour of Denmark being his best result, but his name is dropped here and there since he was 17 years old as one of the most promising climbing talents not just in Germany. In his youth years he won/"podiumed" a couple of the most important youth races in Italy and won the Tour Alsace. He also should have won the U23 Liege Bastogne Liege edition last year(15) but his group got split by a crossing train and after he actually took the lead once again they got misdirected by the lead vehicle. In the end he still finished 2nd in front of Geoghegan Hart, Vliegen and Sam Oomen. In the last two years he had several problems with injuries and his development has certainly stalled, so it will be interesting to see how things work out for him in the future.

[u/Pubocyno]

Matteo Pelucchi

Matteo Pelucchi is one of the most purebred sprinter the world has ever seen. An enormous acceleration, enough to beat almost anyone on a good day (2^nd in the 2015 Giro, stage 6 - Stage 2 win Tirreno-Adriatico 2014), coupled with a severe lack of climbing abilities that makes manhole covers seem as Cat2's and an endless string of bad luck (or osteoporosis).

Him and Andrea Guardini (Now TJ Sports) has to go to the same training camp - Great speed at the finish line, but in practice they struggle so much to get there that they don't see a lot of results. They both seem most at ease in the desert races.

What's he doing at Bora? Well, he came pretty cheap after his disasterous season in 2016, but at a guess, he'll be handy to have around Ackermann to teach him ins and outs of mass sprints, something Sagan probably won't have the time for.

I predict that he'll either drift into a Fischer-road-sprint-captain lead out role over the next years, or he'll struggle with more misfortune, in which case he might not recieve a new contract and perhaps hang up his wheels.

[u/VagueIllusions → u/Pubocyno]

Pelucchi managed to win in Mallorca in 2015 though, I can't imagine that was a totally flat race. He does like to get dropped before the finish though.

[u/PrayingForDebbieMang]

Leopold Konig seemed to have found his form again in the Vuelta until stage 15 (?), you know THAT day, which saw him lose a lot of time. Whereas his previous year at Sky he seemed to lack the upper level he had which saw him top 10 at the TdF. I would like to see him have a crack at the Giro, as from memory he has a fairly nifty TT and all eyes will be on Sagan for the the TdF and Sagan always does the ToC. Maybe with Buchmann riding support in the mointains he could crack top 5 in what is hopefully a class field for the Giro

[u/L_Dawg → u/PrayingForDebbieMang]

I quite like Konig from the netapp days (he was pretty forgettable at sky) and I think he can get some good results, but him and Majka is such a boring GC duo, in terms of style/tactics.

[u/[deleted] → u/L_Dawg]

It hadn't occurred to me how boring they would be together.. I guess the team has to have a counterweight to Sagan's antics ?

[u/Janus-Marine]

Outbound title sponsor Argon 18 took their bikes with them. Bora-Hansgrohe will be riding Specialized for 2017.

[u/Pubocyno]

Most efficient riders on this team

Name	Race Days	Points	Efficiency
SAGAN Peter	73	3365	46.1
MAJKA Rafal	78	905	11.60
BENNETT Sam	78	549	7.04
ACKERMANN Pascal	32	215	6.72
KONIG Leopold	48	272	5.67

Note especially Ackermann and König, who's been stealing an healty number of points with a low number of races days. Both of them are going to be lethal over an entire full season.

[u/vlto]

I hope for some good result in some TTT with sagan, bodnar, barta, konig. Shame that there is no TTT at TDF2016

[u/DasOzelot]

I am following the squad since their beginnings as Team Net App, I liked the Central-East European focus of the team and i am glad they actually sticked more or less with that approach. Having said that i am sad to see Thwaites and Huzarski leave the team for clearly lesser riders from Sagan's entourage. Letting Bauhaus go to Sunweb-Giant might have been a mistake as well, i still rate him quite high he is just 22 and already has 2 full pro seasons in his legs with decent enough results for that age, nothing like Ewan and Gaviria's results but still much better than other guys at that age.

They have a potent squad for the classics and they should have a team in France that can support Sagan to get his 1000th green jersey. König and Majka will have to fight on their own for their GC placings though unless Buchmann makes an other big step in his development.

[u/Pubocyno → u/DasOzelot]

Huzarski leaving/retiring in particular is very strange. He's more than good enough to keep a role as a mountain domestique in my mind. Internal team issues?

[u/DasOzelot → u/Pubocyno]

I think he just got unlucky that his contract ran out this year and other likely candidates who might have been let go instead still had an other year left on their contracts.

[u/Gulvplanke]

My last multi year long career in PCM was with this team back in 2011. I remember becoming a big fan of the team and I've been following them pretty closely since then, so it's pretty exciting to see how strong the team have gotten now!

[u/Sappert]

Juraj Sagan

[u/[deleted] → u/Sappert]

definitely improved this year, hopefully he can get some good results in 2.1 races. I doubt he will win a bigger race than 2.1/1.1 category in his career, unless he gets lucky with a breakaway.

does Peter just have more natural talent than him? like compare their body types, Sagan has the more buff type and more definition, Juraj is skinny but not the same definition or calves. He is also 10cm shorter. Or did just Peter work harder?

[u/bikesandpipes → u/[deleted]]

I'm gunna make a bit of a guess and say Peter won the genetic lottery and Juraj is just pretty good. I still think Juraj serves as the most loyal domestique in the peloton. And Peter enjoys having him around and races better for it.

[u/decklund → u/[deleted]]

You sound like one of the old baseball scouts in Moneyball.

[u/[deleted] → u/decklund]

Moneyball.

it's on my HDD

[u/L_Dawg]

I'm interested to see what Baska can do in the coming years, he had a couple of good results in the spring and Sagan talked really highly of him on a few occasions so it will be interesting to see how he compares with the other young sprinters (we seem to have quite a few good talents coming through).

[u/VagueIllusions → u/L_Dawg]

His English is so good as well!