Sam Bennett back to Tour de France in 2022, Jai Hindley and Wilco Kelderman go to Giro d’Italia
Bora-Hansgrohe has laid out its grand tour plans for 2022 with Sergio Higuita leading the squad at the Vuelta a España.
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Sam Bennett is heading back to the Tour de France while Jai Hindley and Wilco Kelderman are set to reunite at the Giro d’Italia in 2022.
Bora-Hansgrohe has also confirmed that new signing Sergio Higuita will head up the team’s ambitions at the Vuelta a España, the team has confirmed to VeloNews.
Bennett, who returned to the team this winter following a two-year stint with Deceuninck-Quick-Step, missed the Tour de France last year due to a knee injury he picked up in training shortly before the race.
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The Irish sprinter won the green jersey at the 2020 Tour de France and will be a favorite to take it when he returns this summer. He is set to ride alongside potential GC contenders Max Schachmann, Alexander Vlasov, and Felix Großschartner.
With a string of new GC talent, Bora-Hansgrohe is also planning to send a strong line-up of overall challengers to the Giro d’Italia.
Hindley and Kelderman are back together after riding in for second and third at the 2020 Giro while racing for Team Sunweb. Hindley went back to try and beat his best — riding with Romain Bardet this time — but ultimately left the race early due to saddle sores.
Kelderman joined Bora-Hansgrohe last season and rode to fifth with the team in last year’s Tour de France. Hindley is one of several new recruits for the 2022 season.
Emmanuel Buchmann will join the pair on the Giro d’Italia start line after failing to finish last year’s race. The 29-year-old German was caught up in the major crash on stage 15, which led to the race being neutralized while the medical crew attended to injured riders.
He later returned to grand tour racing at the Tour de France where he supported Kelderman to his fifth-place finish.
For the time being, the Vuelta a España will be the domain of Higuita, who was snapped up over the winter. At 24, Higuita is a promising GC talent and he finished 14th at the 2019 Vuelta a España.
While the team has been welcoming its new riders with open arms, it also waves goodbye to a member of staff. Bahrain-Victorious announced Monday that it has signed sport director Enrico Poitschke, who left Bora-Hansgrohe at the end of 2021 after 10 years.
