Sam Bennett’s Bora-hansgrohe targets sprints and overall at Giro | Sticky Bottle

Sam Bennett's Bora-hansgrohe team has named its selection for the Giro d'Italia. Rafal Majka, above, is the man for the overall and Pascal Ackermann is in the sprinting hot seat.

Sam Bennett has long reconciled himself to not riding the Giro d’Italia, which gets underway next week and his team has now confirmed its selection.

As expected Bennett is not in the team, with Pascal Ackermann going to Italy as the dedicated sprinter.

But Bora-hansgrohe will also target the
general classification with Rafal Majka, who has a career Grand Tour podium on
his palmares.

He was 7th overall on his Giro debut in
2013 and went one better overall the following year.

Majka also won the king of the mountains in the Tour de France in 2014 and claimed two stages.

Bennett and Ackermann: The Irishman is not in the Giro as the German takes his place. But Bennett has had a great year already and he should get a go at the Vuelta.

Rafal Majka won another stage of the Tour the following season, 2015, and was 3rd overall at the Vuelta.

In the Giro in 2016 he was 5th overall and was top climber again in the Tour.

However, the past two years have not seen the same similar GC rides in Grand Tours, though Bora-hansgrohe are confident he can come good at this Giro.

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Italy's hero Balsamo mobbed mid-stage during Giro TT

For his part, Ackermann goes into the Giro under a lot of pressure to claim at least one, and perhaps multiple, stage wins.

Sam Bennett won three last year and has been on fire so far this season. Yet Bora-hansgrohe has decided to go with Ackermann for the 2019 Giro.

The German champion has enjoyed success this year; his biggest victory coming just last week at the Eschborn-Frankfurt WorldTour one-day event.

That was his third win of the season and while his victories have not been as frequent as Bennett or of the same standard, last week’s win came at a good time for him.

Also in the Bora-hansgrohe team for the Giro are Cesare Benedetti, Davide Formolo, Jay McCarthy, Pawel Poljanski, Rudiger Selig and Michael Schwarzmann.

While Sam Bennett is not riding, he will very likely start the Vuelta in September, when he would be a favourite for stages once he is in good form.

Peter Sagan has been the team's main rider for the Tour in recent years but has enjoyed below par form, for him, this year so far.

If that were to continue, it may open the door for Bennett to the Tour. However, it is still to early to determine of Sagan is on a short-term slump or something more significant.

And it is also unclear if the team would contemplate sending both to the Tour if Sagan's form remains poor.