In this week’s edition of the Cyclingnews podcast – brought to you by Sportful and Pinarello – we hear from Nicolas Roche about his 2020 season and the success of his Team Sunweb squad.
The Irishman played a significant part in the team’s success this year, which included three Tour de France stage wins. He talks about his road captain role and plans for next season, when Team Sunweb will be known as Team DSM after securing sponsorship from the major, Dutch-based nutrition, health and sustainable living product company.
We also hand out season review report cards on Team Sunweb and AG2R La Mondiale, and we ask our listeners to record a new version of the Cyclingnews podcast theme tune.
With just five wins this year, which was a third of what they won in 2019, AG2R La Mondiale had a tough season. Their standout riders were Nans Peters at the Tour de France and then Benoît Cosnefroy, who took three of their wins. At 25, he’s really starting to fulfill the potential he showed when he won the World Under 23 title in 2017.
However, the team as a whole struggled, losing Romain Bardet at the Tour to a crash and concussion, and then missing out on a glut of victories in smaller races in France after the majority of them were cancelled. We review their year, Ed Pickering from Procycling awards them a grade, while we also cast our eyes over their 2021 roster.
Over at Team Sunweb, the German registered team won 16 races, which is their most since 2014 when they had 41 wins. They won three stages in the Tour, Fleche Wallonne, finished second in the Giro d’Italia, and had two of this year’s breakthrough riders in Jai Hindley and Marc Hirschi.
The Cyclingnews Podcast is brought to you by Sportful and Pinarello. To subscribe to the Cyclingnews Podcast, click here.
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