Pascal Ackermann smiled at the question as he picked at a foil container of rice outside the anti-doping control truck in Qinzhou. The German champion was still digesting his victory minutes earlier on stage 2 of the Tour of Guangxi, but at this time of the year, thoughts tend to turn quickly to next season. The 24-year-old has claimed nine wins in 2018, including six at WorldTour level, singling himself out as one of the coming men of world sprinting. His Bora-Hansgrohe team, however, also features two men who might be said to have already arrived: three-time world champion Peter Sagan and triple Giro dīItalia stage winner Sam Bennett. Even on a top-flight team riding a full quota of WorldTour races, three sprinters can be a crowd, though Bennett, Sagan and Ackermann have dovetailed well this year. But will there still be enough room on Bora-Hansgrohe for all three fast men in 2019, particularly when the season just gone by has seen Ackermann and Bennett hit top speed?ADVERTISEMENT `Up to now, yes,` Ackermann laughed. `I think we have a lot of strong sprinters. We always work well together, and we split all the races between us. We have to see what happens in the next years.` It looks certain that Ackermann will make his Grand Tour debut in 2019, though it remains to be seen where he will take his bow. This year, Bora-Hansgrohe sent Sagan to the Tour de France and Sam Bennett to the Giro d`Italia, but lined out at the Vuelta a Espaņa without a recognised sprinter. `For sure there is one Grand Tour in the programme next year but I donīt know which one yet,` said Ackermann. As well as carrying three different sprinters, Bora-Hansgrohe have assembled the bones of three lead-out trains, albeit with some interchangeable carriages. The one fixture in Ackermannīs entourage is his fellow countryman Rudiger Selig, who has accompanied him on this late-season haul to China. `We always have like three guys for a sprint,` Ackermann said. `Rudi Selig is my last lead-o ...
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