Rivera at center of Sunweb’s new season

TEAM Sunweb officially launched its roster for the new season in Berlin recently, presenting the men’s WorldTour and development teams and the International Cycling Union (UCI) Women’s Team together at the Umspannwerk, Alexanderplatz.

There are three new faces among the 11 riders on the women’s squad while Ellen van Dijk and Ruth Winder both moved to the newly formed Trek-Segafredo team.

At the presentation, Cyclingnews spoke to the three new signings—Susanne Andersen, Pfeiffer Georgi and Janneke Ensing, as well as Sports Director Hans Timmermans, about the upcoming season.

Timmermans thought that the loss of van Dijk and Winder has not weakened the team massively. “They’re good riders, but I feel they are not as versatile as others,” he told Cyclingnews. “And we wanted a team of riders that can all fulfill various roles. We are competing against an individual class like for instance [Annemiek] van Vleuten or [Anna] van der Breggen, and then you need to work together as a team really well to have a chance to beat them.”

Ensing, 32 and from the Netherlands, joins the team from Alé Cipollini. She is a Classics-style rider who won Le Samyn des Dames in 2018. Timmermans explained that she was not signed to replace van Dijk, even though they are similar in some aspects.

“We had already signed Janneke before we knew they would leave,” he said. “She is a great rider, and we wanted to become stronger as a team, that is always our philosophy. Liane Lippert, Juliette Labous, and Floortje Mackaij are one year older now, Lucinda Brand made another step last year, so we hope to have three or four riders among the last 20 to 30 riders [during the races] now instead of one or two.”

Andersen, 20, and Georgi, 18, were signings of a different nature; both are young riders who

show promise in their future careers. Andersen joins the team from Hitec Products and is a regular podium finisher in bigger stage races, while Georgi is a neo-pro from Great Britain who won the junior editions of the Healthy Ageing Tour and Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

“We always try to bring in the biggest talents,”Timmermans said. “Susanne has been at the top of our list for years already. She had signed a long-term deal with Hitec Products as a first-year junior, we continued to follow her, and now she was available. Pfeiffer was the best junior rider of the last two years, performing well in a variety of races with different courses.”

Andersen will begin her 2019 season in Spain at the Setmana Valenciana before racing in the spring Classics—Omloop van het Hageland,

Ronde van Drenthe, Nokere Koerse and Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne. Later in the year, her program includes the Ladies Tour of Norway, but before that, Andersen is scheduled for the Giro Rosa.

Timmermans believes that Andersen has a lot of talent and that there is still much room for improvement. “I think her development has stalled a bit in the last years,” he said. “She has some very good results but is still lacking consistency. Over time she can become a top sprinter and also do well in punchy races, comparable to Coryn Rivera.” Cyclingnews