Team Dimension Data has selected their climbing specialists for the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, which starts in Basque Country, Spain, tomorrow.
The six-stage WorldTour event this year will consist of five major climbing stages with a flat time-trial – in stage four – the only variation.
As a result, DiData have included some of their punchy climbers to take on the challenge in the course of the week.
Steve Cummings, pictured here, returns for Team DiData for the six-stage Vuelta al Pais Vasco, which starts tomorrow. Photo: Yuzuru Sunada
The team is Tom-Jelte Slagter, Serge Pauwels, Ben King, Lachlan Morton, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Igor Anton and returnee Steve Cummings.
Cummings won one of the stages in 2016’s event and he will focus on the time-trial stage, the team’s sport director Bingen Fernandez said.
“The time-trial will be important for the general classification and it is a stage that Steve Cummings can target.”
Fernandez said they had selected a number of “big” names, all close to the top of their form. “For us, we will look to take our opportunities and win a stage,” he said.
“If we find ourselves in a smaller group with the likes of [Alejandro] Valverde, [Mikel] Landa or the Izaguirre brothers [Gorka and Ion], we will really have nothing to lose, so they can race positively.
“We will look to guys like Pauwels, King and Slagter to get into key moves. Then maybe we can feature on GC.
“We have options this week and we will be part of the race every day.”
