UAE Tour 2021 – 3rd Edition – 3rd stage Strata Manufactoring – Jebel Hafeet 166 km – 23/02/2021 – Ben Hermans (BEL – Israel Start-Up Nation) – photo Luca Bettini/BettiniPhoto©2021

Ben Hermans to lead a strong lineup in Settimena COPPI e BARTALI

There are no dull days for Israel Start-up Nation as the 2021 season kicks into a higher gear. 

As yesterday saw the beginning of the high-profile Volta a Catalunya, today seven other ISN riders will take on the six stages Coppi e Bartali, which runs from the shores of the Adriatic to the mountains of San Marino. 

The race will start this morning with a rare doubleheader: a short, relatively flat 98 km stage followed by the first TEAM time trial of the season (11 km, flat as a table) – with a short rest in between.

But in the coming days, the race will turn into the real business of climbing, culminating in the queen stage Friday in San Marino that may decide the GC. The 154 km stage will present three challenging categorized climbs, including a 9.1 km circuit with a climb to the finish.

The team’s goals: “We have quite a few objectives coming here,” said our Italian Sports Director Claudio Cozzi. “We would like to try to win a stage with Alessandro De Marchi, produce a quality TTT, show consistent teamwork from start to finish, and see Ben Hermans fight it out with the main GC contenders.”

A solid lineup that includes riders with TT expertise (Brändle and Dowsett), climbers (Niv and Piccoli), and the young, newcomer Australian Sebastian Berwick (21), will do their utmost to turn the plan into reality.

Full lineup:

Ben Hermans  🇧🇪 

Alex Dowsett  🇬🇧 

Matthias Brändle  🇦🇹 

Guy Niv 🇮🇱 

James Piccoli 🇨🇦 

Alessandro De Marchi 🇮🇹 

Sebastian Berwick 🇦🇺 

Sports directors:

Claudio Cozzi 🇮🇹 

Dror Pekatch  🇮🇱