After a crash at the Tour of the Alps required stitches to his knee and then intolerable pain from a saddle sore forced him out of the Giro d’Italia, Australian Jai Hindley looks to return to Grand Tour racing at the Vuelta a Espana.
The West Australian will ride Clasica San Sebastian this weekend, with his final participation in the Vuelta to be determined by the team closer to the start date as he is still recovering from those Giro injuries.
“Jai is still recovering from his injury sustained at the Giro d’Italia,” said Team DSM DS Matt Winston. “There have been some ups and downs in the last period for him, so we will make the final call on whether he will take the start after as the race draws closer.”
Michael Storer is the other Australian in the team, backing up from a strong showing in the Giro d’Italia, where he was particularly prominent on Stage 20, where he helped Romain Bardet conduct a late raid to move up the standings, with Bahrain Victorious’ Damiano Caruso also part of the move, winning the stage.
The Vuelta is known for its leg sapping gradients and brutally difficult climbs and this year’s edition of the race looks set to be no different, with several challenging mountain top finishes, including a brand-new climb for the race on stage 18; Altu d’El Gamoniteiru which averages an almost brutal ten percent for 15 kilometres.
It’s not just the climbs that will excite the peloton as there are bunch sprint chances for the fast-men, plus hilly stages for the opportunists, while the race is sandwiched between two efforts against the clock.
Romain Bardet also joins the team for a potential GC charge, while Alberto Dainese will be their man for the sprints.
“We bring a strong team to the Vuelta once again this year, who are very motivated to end Team DSM’s year on a high note and bring home some top results,” said Winston. “The team have gelled really well together at altitude camp with some good workshops, as we ironed out and pre-discussed our tactical plans for the race.
“We’ll take an offensive approach with the team, first focusing on stages and seeing where that brings us, moulding our approach to the race as we head towards Santiago de Compostela. After the final races that we have coming up to put the finishing touches to our hard work, we look forward to bringing our Grand Tour season to a close in Spain next month.”
Team DSM Line-up:
Thymen Arensman
Romain Bardet
Alberto Dainese
Nico Denz
Chad Haga
Jai Hindley
Michael Storer
Martijn Tusveld
