Shortly before the start of the 107th Tour de France, the German cycling star Emanuel Buchmann at least mentally said goodbye to his originally intended podium place. The Corona regulations are not being shaken in the meantime. And: positive news for the Bora-hansgrohe team.
“It would be wishful thinking to continue spending this goal,” said Buchmann from the German team Bora-hansgrohe in an interview with the Cologne city gazette: “Maybe it will be better than expected.”
So anything is possible for last year’s fourth. “That I lose a lot of time on the first really difficult stages – or that things are going really well and I can make it to the front,” said Buchmann. Should he be out of the race for the yellow jersey early, he will want to consider other goals. “If the form returns in the course of the tour, a stage win would be a possible plan B”, said Buchmann.
In particular, he still lagged behind the two favorites for the overall victory in the Grand Loop, defending champions Egan Bernal (Colombia / Ineos Grenadiers) and Primoz Roglic (Slovenia / Jumbo-Visma). “Roglic is more lively and can briefly pedal higher watt values than me, and he is also very strong in the time trial,” said Buchmann, who sees Bernal “ultimately a bit stronger in the overall package”.
Buchmann had a bad fall at the Dauphine tour dress rehearsal in mid-August, had no fractures but suffered painful bruises. This cost him a few days of training and thus possibly the decisive form.
Tour remains tough: exclusion in the event of two positive corona cases in the entire team
In view of the rapidly increasing corona numbers, the organizers are sticking to their tough measures and will exclude a team within seven days from the entire team environment, including supervisors, if two positive corona cases have started on Saturday. The world association UCI published softer rules for the big tours on Friday, according to which only positive tests by drivers lead to an exclusion.
“We stay with two cases in a group of 30 people in a period of seven days,” tour director Christian Prudhomme told the news agency on Saturday morning AFP. This decision was made by a working group of the French government that is entrusted with measures against the corona crisis.
The rule means that, for example, the driver in the yellow jersey will be taken out of the race if the bus driver and a mechanic in his team test positive.
On Thursday, the Lotto-Soudal team exchanged four people from the support staff after two “non-negative” tests. The two main contact persons for the cases in question also had to leave. The drivers and team members are checked on the two rest days and after suspicion. Positive tests should be checked with a second test, if possible before the start of the next stage.
Bora-hansgrohe will remain the main sponsors until 2024
The future of the German professional cycling team Bora-hansgrohe is assured. The racing team from Raubling in Upper Bavaria announced the extension of the contracts with the main or name sponsors Bora and hansgrohe until 2024. The old contract ran until 2021. The team has been operating under the name Bora-hansgrohe since 2017. The team will start the 107th Tour de France on Saturday with eight drivers.
“I am proud that we can continue to count on the support of our two most important donors, because it is also a confirmation of our work,” said team principal Ralph Denk. The multi-year commitment gives the necessary planning security “to take our next steps in development as a team,” said Denk, who has big goals: “My big dream is definitely a Tour de France victory, including the WorldTour we want to win in the next few years. “
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