Skip to content

Cannondale – Drapac announces 2017 Tour de France nine

  • Ron 

Alberto Bettiol. Paddy Bevin. Nate Brown. Simon Clarke. Andrew Talansky. Taylor Phinney. Pierre Rolland. Rigoberto Uran. Dylan Van Baarle. Those nine got the call-up for the Cannondale-Drapac squad 2017 Tour de France squad. Four debutantes will certainly add to the team’s attacking, excited spirit and Tour veterans will balance the team.

The team heads into La Grande Boucle with multiple objectives: on one hand, the team will attack and search for chances on every inch of road during the sport’s biggest race, and on the other hand the team will balance dual general classification hopes with Uran and Talansky.

Talansky has finished 10th and 11th at the Tour de France in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Uran has ridden the Tour three times, and finished second on two occasions at the Giro d’Italia. The team also goes in with two-time stage winner Pierre Rolland, fresh off a victory at the season’s opening grand tour.

“We’re going in with two GC leaders. Andrew and Rigo. But neither of those GC projects will hinder us from going after stage wins,” said sport director Charly Wegelius. “When I look at this team, I see enthusiasm. I see potential. I see real, quality engines there. And I see a group of people who are really prepared to support one another. I see energy. It’s all the things we say we are.

“We want people with the enthusiasm to take every single chance that comes, even if they’re small ones. We want riders fighting for stages they have a smaller chance of winning as if they were stages they had a high probability of winning. We’ve got to go after everything with the same kind of hunger the group at the Giro showed. Because they exploited everything.”

“Charly did a great job selecting a dynamic group of riders for this Tour,” said Slipstream Sports CEO Jonathan Vaughters. “I have confidence in the riders, but I also have confidence in the entire staff representing us in France, from the soigneurs to the directors and mechanics. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

Taylor Phinney makes Tour debut

“Taylor has been improving since the classics,” said Cannondale-Drapac DS Charlie Wegelius. “He had a lot of setbacks this year, no doubting that. Which has been rough for him, because he worked hard to get his body firing, and just when he was on the cusp of being able to cash in on that, some hiccup happened. But he never lost his focus.

“He’s really someone who has got the ability to rise to a big occasion without letting the occasion get the better of him. He’s someone who can read how big the Tour is and get the best of himself because of that.”

“Making the Tour de France team is a dream come true,” Phinney commented. “This is my seventh year as a professional. I’ve never raced the Tour de France. The main reason I got into the sport of cycling is because I went to go watch the Tour de France when I was 14. And 15. I was like, ‘I want to do that.’ It’s taken me a long time to get to this point of saying I’m about to line up for the Tour. It feels right. It feels natural. I’ve been fighting back all season from various things just to make to this point. I’m really thankful to the team for supporting me in this endeavor. Supporting me this whole year.”

Tags:
Bike World News