Bauke Mollema and Richie Porte will co-lead Trek-Segafredo at the upcoming edition of the Tour de France.
The American team will take three debutants to the Tour: World Champion Mads Pedersen, Kenny Elissonde and Niklas Eg,.
“I’m really looking forward to the Tour de France,” said Mollema. “Hopefully, I can be up there fighting for the GC and simultaneously looking for stages. In this Tour we will have some mountain stages already in the first week, so if I’m at a good level I think there will be opportunities to go for a stage win as well. In this strange year I think we have to seize every opportunity you can.
“I’ve done quite a bit of recon, so I know the course pretty well. I’ve looked closely at eight stages and I know this will be a very hard Tour, especially the last week, when the race will be decided. However, the first week will already be extremely hard so you must be ready from the start. I’ve prepared well, the training has been good for the last months and I think I’ve shown to be on a good level in the races I did, specifically Occitanie, Tour de L’Ain and Il Lombardia. They went really well so hopefully I can build on that and show a good level in the Tour as well.”
Porte also talked about his goals for La Grande Boucle. “The objective for me is to go for a good GC result, which aligns with the team objective, along with taking a stage along the way,” said the Australian. “Last year we had Ciccone take a stage which was really good for morale in the team. It would be nice to go out and have a good Tour like that.
“This year the Tour has a really hard start. I know the roads around Nice well, I think the first day will be tricky and stressful like it always is. The second stage is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I think it’s really going to be a decisive stage, tactically I don’t really know what to expect. Some of the stages, especially in the Alps, look pretty good for me. We just have to see what happens.”
Trek-Segafredo squad for the 2020 Tour de France: Niklas Eg, Kenny Elissonde, Bauke Mollema, Mads Pedersen, Richie Porte, Toms Skujins, Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns.
