This year's UCI Road World Championships will be held in Doha,
Qatar. And STRADALLI – BIKE AID will be in the middle as the team receives
official start allowance from UCI for Team Time Trial.
It sounds again like crazy news or April's fool, but it is true
and real. How can it be that a „small team“ goes to the official UCI World
Championships and even more: how to try to challenge the „big guys“ from the
World Tour such as BMC, SKY or Tinkoff?
Yes, indeed: we have been surprised the same way But we already
received the confirmation from UCI in July, so we had enough time to prepare
ourselves how we can announce this awesome news. It is a great honor for us but
at the same time this opportunity means also a huge responsibility for the
team, the riders and all involved people.
Yes, the guys from STRADALLI – BIKE AID will be for sure
the underdogs and the most important thing at this stage so far is sure to be a
part of the World championships and that we made it there, but on the other
hand everybody is highly motivated and ready to fight with all he has to
achieve the best result possible. Six riders will represent the team colors of
STRADALLI – BIKE AID besides the best teams in the world.
Also our partners and suppliers were the same way excited as we
were when we told these news and there was not just one second of hesitation to
support us a little extra for this event.
Team Time Trial is a huge invest in equipment, as it is a lot
about aerodynamics etc. The challenge was also to adapt all of our equipment
for this special demand and without any question the partners like STRADALLI
CYCLE (TT – frames), Citec (disc – wheels) or Bollé (TT helmets) or
Biehler Sportswear with the new developed high tech TT suits jumped on our side
and did their utmost to make all this come true. So our riders will definitely
look fast when they will climb the starting ramp in Doha.
„This event is a real big thing for us and means a Lot . „ STRADALLI - BIKEAID Manager
Given the fact that we actually are a small professional team with
limited budget and based on great sponsor and the cycling community we never
could imagine that we could take all these steps from winning UCI Africa Tour
to participate as a team in the UCI World Championships . We can not
achieve more with the given budget“.
In 2016 Many top 10 results in races of UCI category 1 and HC
but also lot of podium places were taken this year. The best result so far was
for sure Meron Teshome's 2nd place on stage 11 in Tour of Qinghai
Lake (UCI 2.HC) but also Nikodemus Holler delivered many strong performances
with good results in the GC in Tour of gabon (UCI 2.1), Ireland or Tour of
China. KOM Ireland jersey.
The team currently holds a special training camp in Bad
Salzhausen to finetune the technique for team time trial. On Monday October 3rd the last race in the Europe Tour will
take place for the team at Münsterland Giro with guys like Marcel Kittel, Mark
Cavendish or André Greipel before the riders and staff fly to Doha on next
Wednesday
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