The Tour de France might be four months away yet but Bora-Argon 18 will start their preparation in earnest now after receiving a wildcard entry for the third year in-a-row. The German team are still looking for their first stage win and have a team capable of delivering big results in the sprints and in the mountains.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett’s Bora-Argon 18 team received a huge boost ahead of some of their key early-season targets when they were granted a wildcard invitation for the Tour de France.
The German-registered team have ridden the race the last two years but have yet to win a stage, though they are really muscling in on some of the bigger WorldTour squads in key races.
The Tour is their big season objective and given their prowess as a well-drilled team capable of winning against the fastest men in the world, it’s likely they’ll send a squad with the intention of claiming a win through Bennett.
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The Irishman was not at his best when he made his debut in the race last year but come July, he’ll have learnt an awful lot more about himself while also learning more about his leadout train that changed slightly in the off-season.
“These are great news today! To be invited for the third time in a row to the world’s biggest cycling event is a big honour and I want to thank the ASO for their trust in us,” Bora Argon-18 team manager Ralph Denk said.
Other teams to have received wildcard entries were French teams Cofidis, Direct Energie and Fortuneo-Vital Concept.
In theory, Ireland could be represented by six riders with Etixx-QuickStep (Dan Martin), Team Sky (Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan), Dimension Data (Matt Brammeier) and Garmin-Cannondale (Ryan Mullen) all getting automatic invites courtesy of being World Tour teams.
The likelihood of that however, is very slim.
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