With the Tour de France just over a week away, Team Sunweb are pleased to announce their line-up for the 2017 edition of 'La Grand Boucle'.
This year's Tour de France is a special edition for the German WorldTour team, with the race starting in Düsseldorf, Germany. After 11 stage wins during the previous four editions, Team Sunweb head to the race once again with the ambition of stage success.
"An intricate preparation plan has been created in advance of the race for each rider on the line-up," explained Team Sunweb's trainer Hendrik Werner (GER). "Each plan has been carefully constructed with balanced blocks of altitude training, racing and rest periods. Their progress and power output has been recorded, monitored and analysed by our trainers and experts to ensure that all riders are at optimum performance level."
Team Sunweb's Tour de France coach Aike Visbeek (NED) added: "Our nine-rider line-up has been created with the team's overall goal of stage results at the forefront of our mind. We have selected a strong group of riders to form the lead-out train for Michael on the sprint stages with a difficult finale. The recent racing campaign was a pin-point on our year plan to work on optimising our lead-out."
German Nikias Arndt, the pilot previously confirmed to line-up at the Tour, will be joined by Ramon Sinkeldam, Mike Teunissen, Albert Timmer and Roy Curvers for the sprint stages. Curvers will also take on the role of team captain out on the road. As one of Team Sunweb's core and long-standing members, the depth of his experience and understanding of the team's dynamics will prove essential in leading the team out on the road.
Visbeek explained more about the team's other goals: "Next to our chances in the sprint stages with a difficult finale, we have selected the trio of Warren, Simon and Grand Tour veteran Laurens, who will aim for breakaways. We aim to apply an offensive racing strategy in selected intermediate, hilly and mountain stages." | 
