Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe: "We want to become the strongest team"

Rome, 2 January 2025 - In politics we would speak of a third pole: in cycling, behind the superpowers UAE Team Emirates e Visma-Lease a Bike there is the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, which is trying to gain ground and insert itself even more into the fight at the top of the World Tour. Word of Ralph Denk.  

Denk's statements

  The general manager of the German team started first of all from the season now behind us. "We won the Return with Primois Roglic and not many teams can say they have won a Great Tour in recent years: we do. This gives us confidence, just as the second place in the Giro d'Italia with Daniel Felipe Martinez: we also won the Dauphiné Tour with Roglic and we got on the podium at Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Romandie. This list shows a year of successes, but there are also flaws. We have concentrated too much on stage races and, not by chance, in this transfer campaign we have also tried to strengthen the sector of one-day race riders". We then move on to 2025 and its objectives. "After this season it is clear that we want to win a Great Tour, but also do better in Classics: with all the talent we have in the squad and all the investments made it is clear that we can do well in both categories". Think there is also a more remote but, paradoxically, even more attractive future for a team that last June welcomed the entry of an important sponsor such as Red Bull. "We want to become the most attractive team in the world. I know that's a big statement, but as a team manager I'm ambitious in the long term. We've already made the first decisions to get there and I think talent development is a key point. We've invested in our program Rookie and created the team under-23. The dream is well known: to win the Tour de France and if we could crown it with a rider that we have developed in the team the satisfaction would be even greater". Not only home-grown events: Think also talks about cycling in general and its alleged problems. "There are two issues that the parties are working hard on. One is to make our sport safer and another is the reform of the calendars. For the first point, some progress will be seen already in the next season, but many changes will have a longer-term impact. This sport must become more attractive and modern. In many areas it has remained the same over the years, while the rest of the entertainment world has changed. We need - continues Think - better formats to attract social media, thus managing to unite globalization and traditions. Even at a geographical level: there are the Tour de France and Classics on the cobblestones, but there should also be United States e South America. I would also like the best riders to challenge each other more often, because fans like duels that make history."