Danny van Poppel has said he was not sure why his Bora-hansgrohe team sprinter, Sam Welsford, had not been included in the team's line-up for the Giro d'Italia. But he was now intent on taking his own chances, with Ireland's Ryan Mullen for support.
Van Poppel and Mullen came into the German-registered team with Sam Bennett, as his lead-out riders, for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. However, Bennett departed at the end of last year, after the hoped-for results did not materialise for him, though he still won two Vuelta stages during that period.
Mullen and Van Poppel have stayed with the team and have been working for new sprinter Sam Welsford. However, after Welsford failed to sparkler in recent months, he was omitted from the Giro team. And Bora-hansgrohe is now pinning its hopes on Van Poppel for the sprints.
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The Dutch rider said his decision to become Bennett's lead-out man was a very wise one as he was now a much better rider and it was perhaps the case he had "outpaced" Bennett and Welsford.
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"You will have to ask the team the reason. But maybe they just saw that I am currently better than my leaders," Dutchman Van Poppel said when asked by Dutch newspaper BN DeStem about Welsford's absence from the Giro team.
"We started off great in the Tour Down Under. After that it didn't run so smoothly anymore," he said of the recent weeks, where he was much stronger than Welsford in the sprints at the Tour of Turkey.
"After riding with Sam (Bennett) for two years, I now try to focus on what I have to do. The team chooses not to include Sam (Welsford for the Giro). Fine. Then it's up to me. And why not? I am a much better rider than three years ago.
“I was able to develop tremendously in that role. I have really made progress in the last three years. I was not a consistent rider. Now I have been everywhere for three years. It's starting to look like I've outpaced my leaders."
