The Bora-Hansgrohe team is looking to make a fresh start in 2022. Having opened their doors to Peter Sagan and signed 11 new riders, including sprinter Sam Bennett, they are confident that they have a strong leadout that can lead the Irish to victory in the most important and prestigious sprint finishes.

Alexandre Vlasov, Jai Hindley, Sergio Iguita, and talented young Belgian Sian Uitdebroeks will wear the new green colors and be part of the pivot and new strategy targeting the Grand Tour.

Team manager Ralf Denk and senior director sportif Rolf Aldag revealed that Bora Hansgrohe will target the 2022 Giro d'Italia with Hindley, Wilco Kelderman, and Emmanuel Buchmann ... Vlasov will be fourth overall in the 2021 Giro d'Italia, Bennett is expected to shine in the sprints, and Maximilian Schachmann and 2021 stage winner Patrick Conrad will also be at the Tour.

Nils Pollitt, British sprinter Matt Walls, and Schachmann veteran Marco Haller will form the backbone of the classic team.

Denk seems to be hoping Bennett will win soon and often. The Irish-born Bennett will begin his second year with the team with a tour of Saudi Arabia in early February, followed by a tour of the UAE and Paris-Nice.

Beulah Hansgrohe has constructed a new lead-out for Bennett, with his compatriot Ryan Mullen in the last kilometer role and Danny van Poppel as the new lead-out man. Aldag is confident that these two will be strong in the sprint competition.

"With Sam Bennett joining the team and the whole team being built, I believe we will have the strongest lead-out in the world," this experienced German director sportif said in Spain at Bora Hanglohe's said in a video call from the training camp.

"Ryan Mullen is not a player who can be played off the line. We are confident he can march all the other teams."

Denk made the courageous decision not to stick with Sagan, but with the Slovakian aging and perhaps slowing down, the Bora Hansgrohe team manager was thinking long-term.

"We are grateful for what Peter has done for us over the last five years. We have risen together to the highest level of cycling, the World Tour. But that chapter has come to an end and we are looking forward. We have new partners, a new look and feel. There are new riders," Denk noted.

"We have a clear strategy. We have a lot of new riders and we want to start the season well. After that, we want to build up the GC team in the medium term. We have some really good new talent."

The Giro d'Italia will be the first Grand Tour test for Bora-Hansgrohe. They will ride the Corsa Rosa along with three podium contenders. It will be an opportunity for the entire team to learn how to aim for victory in a Grand Tour.

Bennett will be replaced by Vlasov, who will also join the team and focus on sprinting in the Tour.

"The medium-term scenario is to develop as a Grand Tour team. 'This year I want to concentrate on the classification of the Giro. We don't intend to win sprinters. For us, it's a learning process and that's our main goal," Ardagh elaborated. [We have Jai [Hindley, second in the Giro], Wilco [Kelderman], third in the Giro, and Emmanuel Buchmann. They can be aggressive and can handle any situation in the mountains.

"It will be more of a mix in the Tour. There is room for Sam Bennett in the early stages, but we have Brasov with his sights set on the Tour, and support from Felix Großschartner, Max Schachmann, and the Konrad stage winner. In the Vuelta, Sergio Iguita will be the main GC contender.

The overall win is costly, intense, and limited to big-budget superteams like Ineos Grenadier Jumbo Visma and the current UAE Team Emirates. Beulah Hansgrohe hopes to emulate them in the coming years.

"I've never worked for them, but from the outside looking in, they definitely sell everything really well," Aldag said with envy and ambition.

"Cycling is like an old marriage; it can become a habit with no freshness. With the new people, staff and technical partners, I think we have a really good combination. No one is mentally tired to win the Tour de France."

"They've already had a lot of success, so it probably won't get any better. If things don't go perfectly, it will be a bad season. Of course they are doing a good job, Ineos, Jumbo Bima, UAE, etc. We are well aware that to beat them we will have to pull out something special."