Israel – Premier Tech will take on this week’s Vuelta a Andalucía with a strong team aiming to challenge for both stage wins and the general classification.
“I believe we have good options with multiple riders for this race and I think we can be in the mix for several stages here”, sports director Oscar Guerrero Celaya explains. “It will be hard for any team to control this race, as it’s very hard this year, so we need to analyze the stages very well. The idea is to start out aiming for a stage win and then we will see what’s possible in terms of the GC. With guys like Simon [Clarke], Corbin [Strong] and Dylan [Teuns] we have some good cards to play for the uphill finishes with Dylan keeping an eye on the GC.”
The Spanish stage race begins on Wednesday with a difficult mountain stage and finishes on the following Sunday with another challenging day in the Andalusian hills.
After a strong start to the season, with multiple podium performances, Simon Clarke is eager to get started.
“I’m really looking forward to this race. I’ve always gone well here and with the condition I have now, I hope to go well again this year”, the 36-year-old Australian tells. “We come here with a really strong team and we are definitely looking to ride well and come home with some good results. Previously, I have always tried to go for the GC but this time, they have put in an extremely hard stage on the first day, which I think will be too hard for me. I will leave it to the other climbers in the team to chase the GC and then I will look for other opportunities later in the week.”
IPT lineup: Simon Clarke (AUS), Hugo Houle (CAN), Nick Schultz (AUS), Corbin Strong (NZL), Dylan Teuns (BEL), Tom Van Asbroeck (BEL), Sep Vanmarcke (BEL).
