Fünf Fast Faktoren Mit... Bora Hansgrohe

A year ago I got fired up to see Bora Hansgrohe try to make their move out of what I was calling the “muddled middle” of the World Tour, the teams a big step (or two) below the Jumbos and Quick Steps... and Bora made me look, if not prescient then at least semi-conscious, when they went on to take a very impressive individual and team win at the Giro d’Italia, the centerpiece of a season which saw them fifth overall, trailing only the biggest elephants in the World Tour room.

Like I said then, they are a bit heavily oriented around grand tours or at least stage racing, even by the sport’s standards, and that will continue to be the case this season. Which is not an easy way to make a living. It’s nice that they made it to the second tier, but it might be hard to stay there too.

Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images

1. Can Hindley Make the Tour More Interesting?

Ah, cutting right to the chase. We have seen time and time again riders win the Giro d’Italia and then immediately set out to take the next step up to the Tour. And time and time again, we see that there are guys who can win the Giro... full stop. Nothing in Hindley’s history suggests he can go beyond this level. He’s 27, he won a Giro against Richard Carapaz and Mikel Landa, he lost one previously to Tao Hart, and he hasn’t had the kind of career that suggests he’s about to get to that level. His only victories in Europe at the elite level have been in the Giro. That’s all.

I want to believe though. His climbing has been outstanding, and there aren’t enough ITT miles in this Tour to put Hindley off his game. But if Hindley is a player at the Tour, it’s going to take something very special. Sergio Higuita should be alongside, and the rest of his helpers will be interesting to see, but they won’t include the departed Wilco Kelderman, who was critical in Hindley’s Giro win.

Is this exciting? I want to say it is. Maybe it will be! Maybe Hindley will get to say that they “aren’t here to put socks on centipedes” again, like he did last May, only this time we might get a reasonable interpretation of what that means. But the heavy favorites will still be Pogs and Vingegaard, who were so far above the field last year that... well, Bora have some serious ground to make up.

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

2. OMG CIAN UIJTDEBROEKS IS RIDING THE VUELTA!

DId you hear that Cian Uijtdebroeks is riding the Vuelta? He is! CIAN UIJTDEBROEKS IS RIDING THE VUELTA!!

3. Do we like having Vlasov go to the Giro?

This is an odd move, but Bora don’t seem to be afraid of bucking conventional wisdom, and I think I am with them here. Vlasov had a terrific Tour last year, finishing fifth overall after taking fourth at the Giro in 2021, and this was following a bout with COVID that messed up his prep at the Tour de Suisse. He’s more of a time triallist than Hindley, quite a good one in fact, and the Giro has the ITT km this year. More interestingly, he will go head to head with a somewhat similar rider in Remco Evenepoel there, making for a pretty great battle, something that could really help Vlasov grow as a leader and give the team the juice they aren’t likely to get at the Tour.

Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images

Vlasov will have Bob Jungels as his main support, coming off a campaign where he seemed to overcome his arterial endofibrosis, enough to win a Tour stage. Maybe Giovanni Aleotti gets a third chance for home glory too, after leveling up in the second half of last season (winning Sibiu, 7th in Quebec). I don’t know if Bora see the Giro as the best they can hope for now, given the Pogs-Vings level, or just as a way to keep growing — probably the latter, but the former, pink jerseys, are a pretty inspiring goal too. Smart move here.

Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images

4. What do they even do outside the grand tours?

Watch them make me eat my words... but the current roster seems conspicuously geared toward the three week events, compared to most World Tour teams which mix things up a bit more. Even Sam Bennett, their likeliest winner of things, excels in stage race bunch sprints more than the classic variety. He may end up being their biggest story at the Tour.

They may have one of the quirkiest Cobbled Classics lineups around, which isn’t such a bad thing. Jordi Meeus is the Belgian draft horse and won the Primus Classic (formerly GP Impanis) last season. Supposedly Jungels and Max Schachmann will both ride Flanders. Nils Politt is four years removed from taking second in Paris-Roubaix, but at 29 he has a few shots left. Oh, and they brought in mountain biker Victor Koretzky to see what he can do, after making a better-late-than-never debut with B&B Hotels last year in races like de Ronde. Kind of a rag-tag collection of riders for those events, but I wouldn’t put anything past them.

5. And Those Kits...

Are you excited for this one? Maybe, maybe not. But I find their stuff to be both original and very cool.

2023: Accented Metal

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

If you scroll down, you’ll see that the metallic blue/green has been a staple of the Bora look for several years. But they have added a bit more of it, done some pattern-y things like a lot of teams, and thrown in some red blocks to make it really pop. I totally love it.

2022 Tour Special

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

Like many teams they did a special edition for the 2022 Tour where they lightened up the colors, conventional wisdom saying that this works better under the hot summer sun. The unbalanced sleeves are OK but with the various color blocks it came across as a bit chaotic.

2022 Standard

Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images

I guess this is their classic look with the two shades of the main color dominating, plus some less conspicuous accents than the current version. If you think the 2023 version needs to relax a bit, this is the look for you.

2021 Tour

Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images

I’m getting a little fuzzy on when this look came in — early season or just at the Tour? But it’s pretty great. Very modern cycling. Nils Politt looks like he’s made of carbon fiber, which can’t be ruled out.

2020-21

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

For the shortened 2020 season and the full return in 2021, Bora went with this white-heavy kit that I don’t hate, but don’t feel excited about either.

2019

Photo credit should read JEFF PACHOUD/AFP via Getty Images

One of the oddities of doing these in reverse order is that most teams have gotten better at this, which means in my review of them they just get worse as you read on. This was a forgettable effort, especially in light of where they have taken the designs since... but even compared to the older stuff too. Just not much going on.

2018

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

See, if you are going to do the diagonal V-pattern, this is a much better way of working it in, rather than just having it sitting there in a white field. Kinda like it.

2017

Photo by Cem Oksuz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Emerging from the black days (hang on a moment) as Bora signed on to sponsor the team, this is when the metallic green showed up, albeit in subtle spots that fade to total black in a clever way. Bora make cooking ranges, and the metallic green shows up in a lot of fancy kitchen countertops, so I will give the sponsor and its designers a nod for saving the team from...

2015-16

Photo by Ole Jensen/Corbis via Getty images

Eh, OK, I guess Bora get blamed for the boring black off-the-rack look of the earliest days, but sometimes it takes time to figure stuff out.

2014:

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Oh, hey, remember that this team was formerly NetApp? Maybe not, and with good reason. This was actually their better NetApp look.

2012

Photo credit should read DAVID STOCKMAN/AFP/GettyImages

Don’t look back in anger.

OK, make your picks!