Part of Ciclismo Mundial’ team
was present, this week, at Web Summit, the world’s biggest conference of
technology, in Lisbon, between 6 and 8 of November. Also there was
Mitchelton-Scott team, with their biggest figure in the women cycling, who had
in 2018 a year full of success, especially at Giro Rosa, la Course by le Tour
and time trial worlds.
Unfortunately, we don’t have
the opportunity to be with the Dutch rider, but we could be in conversation
with one of the main headers of the Australian team, Shayne Bannan, who talk us
about this last year of Mitchelton and tells us a little bit about the new
season of one of the sensation teams of the year.
Ciclismo Mundial – What about
this year, winning La Vuelta, almost the victory at Giro with that
heart-breaking moment from Simon at stage 19th… How can you resume the season
for Mitchelton?
Shayne Bannan – Firstly, it
was a fantastic year, and the Giro was disappointing but also a fantastic Giro,
so we learnt a lot from the Giro, Simon learnt a lot and when you’re able to
look at doing the things differently, in a way particularly tactical... I hope
you agree but watching the Giro was an exciting race! It wasn’t “the same”...
And I think our team did an exciting race, so where do we go now, we’re looking
forward to continuing progression and we’re looking forward to work very hard
on another Grand Tour success! Eventually in the Tour, but I’m not sure we are
ready for its next year, but definitively we will try to be on the podium at
Giro and Vuelta next year.
Photo: Miguel Simões
CM – After seeing the
presentation of Giro and Tour, do you think is possible to dream and win both
or at least one of them?
SB – I think the less time
trial suits us, more climbing... So, I think that so far of what I’ve seeing
from Giro course and Tour course, the profile suits the team. We just need to
decide who will be riding what next year, because we have Simon Yates, of
course, Adam Yates and Esteban Chaves who had a bad year, with health problems,
but now he is in full recovery and looking for doing some good results next
year.
CM – What about the women,
Annemiek this year was great, winning Giro, la Course by le Tour, worlds time
trial...
SB – Yeah, she is fantastic!
And she had bad luck at road race, when she hurt her knee, and still finish 7th
what was incredible! She is one of the most dedicated and determined athletes
of peloton. Her determination and professionalism are incredible!
CM – For the next year, I read
on CyclingNews she will be focused on the Ardennes... It will be that a goal
for the new season?
SB – Annemiek rode the track
this year, so next year she will not ride the track, to be more focused on the
Ardennes. I know if she could she would be focused on everything but of course
that’s not possible, you have to select some races during the year, so
Ardennes, Giro, la Course and the Worlds.
CM – What happened with Caleb
Ewan, his change to Lotto Soudal is to create more space to Matteo Trentin, who
is the European champion, or it was a decision by himself?
SB – I think seeing to this year,
we’ve concentrated on many different races and as you become a Grand Tour
contender is more difficult to take GC riders and take the sprinters. So, I
think it was on Caleb best interest as he wants to be successful in stages in
Grand Tours. Seeing that, we can’t give him that opportunity for the future, so
know is a good discussion and we both agree.
Photo: Miguel Simões
CM – With this objective of
win Grand Tours and build a team with capacity to support Simon, Adam or
Esteban, the lost of Roman Kreuziger will be difficult to replace?
SB – Roman is a very
experienced rider and a very reliable Grand Tour rider, so it will be difficult
to replace but we have some younger guys, not as experienced as Roman, but they
will have time to become experienced, so yes, he will be missed, but I think we
have some good replaces.
CM – What about the Chinese
development time… What will be the goals for the next season?
SB – We’re still in discussion
about what the goals are... I mean we have some good names, but we need to
discuss more with the Chinese Cycling Association and probably we will announce
what we’re going to do within the next two, three weeks.
CM – What are going to be the
objectives of Jack Haig for this next season?
SB – To continue to learn and
develop, to continue to get Grand Tour experience and, you know, we will be a
leader in some small races. Still World Tour races but not the Grand Tours. He
still needs time to progress and develop, he is enjoying his role at the
moment, and it will be a time in the future where he has the possibility to
become a Grand Tour leader, but he needs to progress.
Photo: Miguel Simões
To finalize, Ciclismo Mundial
team had the chance to give a look at the team bus that was present at one of
the halls of Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL), in which run some talks and
exhibition of start-ups during the event, and Shayne Bannan revealed us that
bus was the one that five years ago, at Tour de France 2013, was stucked under
the winning post, creating a chaotic situation, solved right just at the time
of the peloton arrive.
Portuguese
version available here (Versão em português disponível aqui): https://cyclingmundial.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-conversa-com-shayne-bannan-diretor-da.html
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