Sam Bennett and Ryan Mullen will have at least one new team mate next year at Bora-hansgrohe with news that Tour de France stage 9 winner Bob Jungels has been signed for the team.
The Luxembourger has signed a new deal of an unspecified period, with the team simply saying it covered multiple seasons. Jungels (29) won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2018 and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne the following year.
However, more recently he has suffered set-backs following crashes and also undergoing surgery for iliac artery endofibrosis in 2020. He rebounded strongly at the Tour when he won his stage, riding for AG2R Citroën. He attacked the breakaway with over 60km to go to the finish in Châtel les portes du Soleil.
Bora-hansgrohe has signed Jungels - a 6th place GC finisher in the Giro in 2016 - to bolster its classic line-up and to support its general classification riders in Grand Tours, especially the Tour de France, which it now plans to prioritise.
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"Bob is a very interesting rider," said Ralph Aldag, sports director at Bora-hansgrohe. "One gets the feeling that he's been in the peloton forever, yet he is just in his prime racing age. He brings an incredible amount of experience, but at the same time also a lot of potential.
"We also believe that this potential is not yet fully exhausted and we would like to work together with Bob on his development. In terms of rider type, he fits perfectly into our multi-captain strategy.
"We’d like to continue to add more depth to our squad to make it difficult for our competitors to predict our racing. Bob can certainly play a key role in important races as he is very versatile."
Jungels said he was delighted to sign for the German team, adding: "As a team I feel it's the right fit for me to return to consistent performances on the WorldTour and I look forward to playing a big role in team victories for the coming seasons.
"I’m sure that I can still develop as a rider and I'm also willing to work hard for it. For me, this change feels like it's the start of something big."
