Bahrain Victorious set for Tour de France challenge

TDT | Manama                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Victorious announced yesterday a strong eight-rider lineup for their biggest event of the year: the 109th edition of the Tour de France. The team target a podium finish in the General Classification (GC) for Australian Jack Haig and Italian Damiano Caruso.

They will have the support of Slovenian Jan Tratnik, Pole Kamil Gradek, Briton Fred Wright and experienced Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez. Slovenian Matej Mohoric and Belgian Dylan Teuns complete the roster.

Mohoric and Teuns were both stage winners at last year’s race, and they will each be looking for even more success. Bahrain Victorious also won the Team title last year, and will be hoping to be the best squad once more.

The Tour de France 2022 departs from Copenhagen, Denmark on Friday next week and ends with the infamous sprint finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on July 24. The 21-stage event covers 3,349.8 km with two time trials.

“I’m feeling really good coming into the Tour and maybe a little more relaxed this year than last year,” said Haig. “Last year I went into the race with a lot of pressure on myself and to prove to my new team that I could perform.

This year I feel much more comfortable in the team alongside the group of riders we have going into the Tour, so I’ve not got much to be nervous about. “As I said, we’ve got a strong line-up going into the race with really good flat support, which will be important for the first seven to eight days, which will be about minimising the risk of any bad luck.

“For my personal ambitions, I want to go well in the GC, and if I get a top-five finish by the end of the Tour, I’d be quite happy. For the team’s ambitions, we will look for some stage results, with the strong guys who will have opportunities to look for some results themselves.”

Mohoric, who was a double-stage winner in 2021, will offer key support for the GC leaders but will also keep an eye out for opportunities to add to his stage win tally. He commented: “My goal in this year’s Tour is to try and win a stage again. My favourite stage will be stage five with the finish at Arenberg forest. I was the first rider to enter it at Paris Roubaix, so my dream is to be the first there again in July.

“I feel confident. I’ve worked as hard as I ever did to be ready for the season’s biggest race. If I can’t do it there, I hope to get a stage win elsewhere from the breakaway. My teammates are also ready; together, we will try and make an even better race than last year.”

The Tour de France is the second of three Grand Tour events on this year’s Union Cycliste Internationale World Tour. A Grand Tour event is a road cycling race that is one of the three major European professional stage races. The first of the season was the Giro d’Italia held in May, and the third, following the Tour de France, will be Vuelta a Espana from August 19 to September 11.