New faces, new successes for Bora-Hansgrohe

Bora-Hansgrohe ended a perfect week on the roads of the UCI WorldTour on Sunday, with Sam Bennett returning to victory in Eschborn-Frankfurt, and Aleksandr Vlasov taking the win at the Tour de Romandie, which had also seen Sergio Higuita claim a stage victory.

They are the latest in a string of Bora-Hansgrohe’s successes since the beginning of the season. In early February, Vlasov was already raising his arms atop the Alto de las Antenas del Maigmó, on stage 3 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, which he went on to win overall. Only a few days later Higuita claimed the Colombian National Champion’s jersey for the second time in his career, the first since he joined the German team last winter.

The new recruits were quickly making a difference, and they’ve carved more success for Bora-Hansgrohe since, especially last week, with a dominant display in the Tour de Romandie. After winning the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in March, Higuita took a stage in Switzerland, as did Vlasov, whose victory in the final uphill time trial stage starting at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, saw him claim the overall win. Meanwhile, Sam Bennett’s return to success with a powerful sprint in Eschborn-Frankfurt, marked his first victory since May 2021 (stages 1 and 3 of the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta).

After a four-year era that saw Bora-Hansgrohe focus on Peter Sagan (most notably winner of his 3rd UCI Road World Champion title, Paris-Roubaix and two Tour de France green jerseys during this time), the German team reshuffled their line-up last winter, while the Slovakian star moved to TotalEnergies. Their new-look squad have now taken 11 victories in 2022 (five in UCI WorldTour races), and nine of them came from riders who joined them for this season - Lennard Kämna is the exception with his stage wins in the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol and the Tour of the Alps.

New recruit and returning team member

The Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana was Vlasov’s first overall victory in a stage race. The Tour de Romandie now sees him improving his record at UCI WorldTour level, in line with his consistent results since the beginning of the season: 4th in the UAE Tour and 3rd in the Itzulia Basque Country.

With four victories in the last three months, he’s already enjoying his most successful season (he had three in 2020). His wins came in stage events, but he’s also delivered strong performances in one-day races: 3rd in the Trofeo Pollença-Port d’Andratx to kick things off at the end of January, 2nd at the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain and 3rd in La Flèche Wallonne.

Meanwhile, Sam Bennett is happy to be back in the Bora-Hansgrohe environment, where he took 38 victories between 2015 (the team was then called Bora-Argon 18) and 2019, when the Irish sprinter joined Deceuninck-Quick Step. Before returning to success in Frankfurt, he came close on several occasions, including his first race of the year, when he finished 2nd to Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) in the opening stage of the UAE Tour.

Last Sunday, he enjoyed a very strong lead-out from another of Bora-Hansgrohe’s winter recruits, Danny van Poppel. The Dutch sprinter, coming from Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, managed to finish in the top 5 himself while launching Bennett towards victory.

“Today everything worked out perfectly! My last win was already 350 days ago and it was definitely about time to win a race again,” Bennett rejoiced. “Danny van Poppel did a great lead out in the end and the only thing I had to do was to bring it to the line.”

Looking to the Grand Tours

The Irish sprinter is now preparing his return to the Tour de France, two years after he dominated the points classification with two stage wins, including the last day on the Champs-Élysées. He’ll be joined by Vlasov, discovering the French Grand Tour after coming 4th at the Giro d’Italia last year. Higuita is set to ride La Vuelta Ciclista a España at the end of the summer.

This May, Bora-Hansgrohe have a first Grand Tour in sight, with the Giro starting this Friday in Hungary. They’ll ride the Corsa Rosa with some of the team’s familiar faces, such as Emanuel Buchmann and Cesare Benedetti, and some new recruits including Wilco Kelderman and Jai Hindley. Both of them have already shone in the Giro d’Italia, and they’re eager to chase more success for their new squad.