Team Jumbo-Visma aims for stage victories and final classification in Denmark
Team Jumbo-Visma will be at the start of the 31st Tour of Denmark in Allerød this Tuesday. The Dutch formation will compete with a balanced team. It aims for stage victories with Olav Kooij and others and wants to perform well in the general classification with Christophe Laporte and Mick van Dijke.
The NordPost Danmark Rundt, as the race is known in the Scandinavian country, contains five stages. "The course is very challenging”, sports director Marc Reef says. "It contains some sprint stages, but there are also stages for climbing specialists."
Past
The 2019 Tour of Denmark was one of the first races in which Jonas Vingegaard focused on the general classification. In his homeland, the Dane finished on the second step of the podium. In the most recent edition, Team Jumbo-Visma won a stage with Dylan Groenewegen; Mike Teunissen finished third in the final ranking.
Ambitions
"We hope to match last year's performance”, Reef says. "We have a strong team at the start which should be able to show itself in all stages. With Olav, we will go for the bunch sprint stages. Looking at the course, he is likely to get two chances. On day two, a twelve-kilometre time trial is on the programme. Mick and Christophe should try to finish as high as possible there."
"We hope to match last year's performance"
Sprint train
Reef saw a strong Kooij at the Tour of Poland. The young sprinter won the opening stage and his teammates positioned him well on several occasions. "Tosh Van der Sande and Mick are now also the right men to put Olav in the right position in the final kilometre. In addition, Christophe will also be involved in the battle. With his experience, he can prove invaluable to Olav."
Tricky stages
The third stage is likely to turn out spectacular. The organisation has included nine gravel sections in the 240-kilometre stage. The riders will face more than seventeen kilometres of unpaved roads. "We'll have to wait and see how the gravel stage goes”, Reef says. "It is clear that our classification riders must be alert, just like in the time trial and the final stage. I am confident we can get some excellent results in Denmark with this strong team."
Line-up Team Jumbo-Visma
Mick van Dijke
Olav Kooij
Tosh Van der Sande
Gijs Leemreize
Christophe Laporte
Pascal Eenkhoorn
Lennard Hofstede