The year of BORA-hansgrohe, the WorldTour team of team boss Ralph Denk, can be described as excellent. Although the German brigade achieved fewer victories than in 2022, the wins seem to have improved in quality this past season. Partly for this reason, the team scores a more than satisfactory grade in the end-of-year assessment of IDLProCycling.com!
Only six of the 23 total victories were achieved in one-day races. And four of those six 'classic wins' took place at a national championship: BORA-hansgrohe produced three time trial champions and one road race champion. Ryan Mullen, Nils Politt and Patrick Gamper crowned themselves as time trial kings in Ireland, Germany and Austria, respectively, while Emanuel Buchmann impressively soloed his way to the German title.
And what about the other two one-day victories? They were achieved by Jordi Meeus and Danny van Poppel, who respectively added Circuit de Charleroi Wallonie and Rund um Köln to their palmares. During the classic Belgian and Italian spring, things didn't go very smoothly for Denk and his team. Politt, one of the team's main spring contenders, failed to meet expectations: a seventh place in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and a tenth place in Dwars door Vlaanderen were the best he could do. Meeus performed quite well, but even with a top ten finish in races like Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Milan-Turin, he couldn't ensure a successful spring season all on his own.
The figurehead of BORA-hansgrohe in one-day races, as we just mentioned, is Van Poppel. Apart from his victory in Rund um Köln, he also finished a commendable ninth in Gent-Wevelgem, but it was particularly through his performances in the autumn that he stood out. Van Poppel secured second place in the BEMER Cyclassics, sixth in the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro and sixth in Paris-Bourges. Not bad at all! Aleksandr Vlasov also deserves to have his name mentioned here. He was somewhat disappointing in the spring classics, but performed well in Clasica San Sebastián (third), Giro dell'Emilia (sixth), Tre Valli Varesine (third) and the Tour of Lombardy (fourth), proving his worth in these races.
Vlasov concluded his season with a fourth-place finish in the Tour of Lombardy
As mentioned in the section on one-day races, the majority of BORA-hansgrohe's triumphs were achieved in multi-day races. And the winning started quite early in the season. In the Vuelta a San Juan, an Argentine race held in January, Sam Bennett was quick off the mark and triumphed in the opening stage. After a two-month dry spell, Ide Schelling then broke the winless streak in the Tour of the Basque Country. The Dutch rider struck gold in the second stage of the Basque multi-day race, followed by Sergio Higuita's victory in the fifth stage.
The victories of Schelling and Higuita initiated a successful winning process for BORA-hansgrohe. In the Tour of the Alps, it was Lennard Kämna who characteristically raced to victory, while surprisingly in stage twelve of the Giro, Nico Denz snatched a stage win. The German schlager fan was in such good form that he also added stage fourteen to his palmares two days later. In that particular Giro d'Italia, Kämna also impressively finished ninth in the overall classification.
In the Tour de France, the BORA-boys once again achieved success. Jai Hindley celebrated a phenomenal solo victory on day five and, thanks to a double victory, even donned the yellow jersey for a day. Add to that a sprint victory by Meeus on the Champs-Élysées, and you have what we would call a successful Tour (not to mention all the other honorable finishes). Meanwhile, in the Romanian Sibiu Cycling Tour, Bennett showcased some of his class again, resulting in three stage wins. BORA-hansgrohe also performed well in the final months of the cycling year. Vlasov and rising star Cian Uijtdebroeks found themselves among the very best, finishing seventh and eighth respectively in Madrid. Particularly notable was the strong performance of the very young Uijtdebroeks, while Kämna in his characteristic Kämnaesque style snatched another stage victory. Finally, Van Poppel completed the 2023 winning streak with a stage win in the Tour of Britain.
If you manage to win at least one stage in every Grand Tour, produce several national champions, achieve a total of 23 season victories and have a variety of riders celebrating wins, you can say you've had a solid season. During the (spring) classics, the expectations might not have been fully met, but that shouldn't dampen the spirits. The IDLProCycling.com editorial team rates BORA-hansgrohe's overall performance at an average final score of 7.3.
Incoming: Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Daniel Felipe Martinez (INEOS Grenadiers), Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-AlUla), Sam Welsford (Team DSM-firmenich), Roger Adriá (Equipo Kern Pharma), Filip Maciejuk (Bahrain Victorious), Alexander Hajek (Tirol KTM Cycling Team) and Emil Herzog (Hagens Berman Axeon)
Outgoing: Sam Bennett (Tudor), Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek), Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates), Giovanni Aleotti (nnb), Ide Schelling (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Matteo Fabbro (Polti-Kometa), Shane Archbold (stopped), Matthew Walls (Groupama-FDJ) and Victor Koretzky (nnb)
The man to watch next year is undoubtedly Primoz Roglic. The Slovenian, who transferred from Jumbo-Visma, had another top year in 2023 as he entered his thirties, achieving overall victories in Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of Catalonia, the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of Burgos. In the Vuelta a España, dominated by the 'killer bees', he finished third, which was also his final position in the Tour of Lombardy. According to his compatriot and rival Tadej Pogacar, the former ski jumper will be even better at BORA-hansgrohe. And Roglic himself? He indeed wants to make cycling history with his new team. "I left the best team in the world, but I find it a special challenge to now make this team the best in the long term," he ambitiously stated.
Besides Roglic, there are, of course, numerous other riders within BORA-hansgrohe that we'll want to keep a close eye on. Take, for example, Uijtdebroeks, who emerged as one of the revelations of the past season. And then there's Hindley, who is likely aiming to land another big victory. Daniel Felipe Martinez has transferred from INEOS Grenadiers and is expected to support the team's general classification riders, though he might also achieve some personal success. Kämna is always an interesting rider to watch, as are Vlasov and Maximilian Schachmann.
In terms of sprinting, it will be particularly interesting to see what Sam Welsford will achieve. The Aussie, who transferred from Team DSM-firmenich, told IDLProCycling.com that he was very excited about this next step in his career. Van Poppel will likely serve as a lead-out, but may also be pushed forward as a sprinter now and then. And then there's Meeus, who will once again be eager for some solid victories (and perhaps more podium finishes in the classics).
Roglic will don the colors of BORA-hansgrohe next year