Wilco Kelderman will lead Team Sunweb`s general classification bid at the Vuelta a España, but the team are cautious about their prospects given the Dutchman has only recently returned from injury. Instead, the German-registered team described the sprints as their `main focus` when they announced their young line-up for the Spanish Grand Tour on Thursday, with Phil Bauhaus chosen to lead the line. Team leader Tom Dumoulin is expected to ride the four-day Deutschland Tour next week and a series of shorter races after finishing second in both the Giro d`Italia and the Tour de France. Kelderman, 27, had planned to ride the Tour de France alongside Dumoulin before getting his own crack over three weeks at the Vuelta, where he finished fourth overall last year. However, the Dutchman`s season has been blighted by injury. A collarbone fracture at Tirreno-Adriatico in March kept him out until June, and after finishing fifth at the Tour de Suisse, he crashed again at the Dutch national championships, injuring his shoulder and preventing him from riding the Tour de France.ADVERTISEMENT He has since recovered and trained enough to take to the start of the Vuelta but, given the lack of racing in his legs, the team aren`t setting their sights too high. `We´re very pleased to have Wilco at the start, which could be considered a small miracle after another difficult period with recovering from a complicated injury,` said sport director Aike Visbeek. `He has worked hard to come back, but we don´t know how stable his level will be throughout the three weeks of racing. We´ll have to take a day by day approach, with the aim to keep him in the GC and see where he stands going into the third week.`
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
|
