Liv AlUla Jayco and Team Jayco AlUla will head to the forthcoming Tour de Suisse with an eye on stage wins and GC success respectively.
This year’s Tour de Suisse will be a unique one with the men’s and women’s races running concurrently across five days, hosted by the same towns.
Mauro Schmid will lead Team Jayco AlUla with a view towards challenging in the general classification and taking a stage win along the way. He will be ably supported by a strong group of climbers in Paul Double, Finlay Pickering, and Asbjørn Hellemose.
Meanwhile, Michael Matthews will continue his build-up to the Tour de France in Switzerland, after making his comeback to racing earlier this month following a long injury lay-off. Davide De Pretto adds another fast finisher while Patrick Gamper rounds out the line-up, providing a strong engine at the core of the team.
Liv AlUla Jayco will be searching out stage success with a well-rounded team ready for all terrains. Talia Appleton will be racing her second WorldTour race since her promotion to the WorldTeam, fresh from her recent win at the Alpes Gresivaudan Classic.
Joining her on the line-up will be fast finishers Letizia Paternoster and Ruby Roseman-Gannon, and Australian champion Mackenzie Coupland. Climber Nadia Gontova and all-rounder Josie Talbot complete the strong squad.
Team Jayco AlUla for the Tour de Suisse
Davide De Pretto (ITA)
Paul Double (GBR)
Asbjørn Hellemose (DEN)
Michael Matthews (AUS)
Patrick Gamper (AUT)
Finlay Pickering (GBR)
Mauro Schmid (SWI)
Liv AlUla Jayco for the Tour de Suisse
Talia Appleton (AUS)
Mackenzie Coupland (AUS)
Nadia Gontova (CAN)
Letizia Paternoster (ITA)
Ruby Roseman-Gannon (AUS)
Josie Talbot (AUS)
Mauro Schmid
“I’ve had a nice block at altitude ahead of the race and I could do some good training there. I’m excited to get back racing. It’s always a little bit extra special racing in Switzerland with the national champion’s jersey, it’s something I really want to enjoy. Hopefully, I can race for a stage win or at least be able to show off the jersey a little bit or see where my shape is heading before the Tour de France. In general, it will be the last race with the national championships so that makes it a little bit more special.”
Letizia Paternoster
“I am happy to come back; I have missed racing a lot. It’s not easy to come back after more than a month without racing but my battery is completely full, and I’ve enjoyed my time at home where I got some rest after a busy spring. This race will be a good test for me ahead of the Tour de France Femmes, which is my big goal. In the end, there are some good opportunities at the Tour de Suisse, and I want to try for some good results. There are some stages that can suit me. We will be a strong team and the goal for the team will be to try and win some stages.”
Pieter Weening – Sport Director Team Jayco AlUla
“The race is only five days instead of eight, but looking at the profiles, it is a very interesting race. The first two stages have some difficult finals, while stage three has a little bit of everything. Stage 4 is a 24km time trial and will be really important for our overall ambitions. The last stage into Villars sur Ollon has a lot of altitude metres, so that will also be a big day for GC where anything can happen.
Our main objective will be the GC with Mauro Schmid but it’s also a good test for Michael Matthews on stages one and two, and also maybe stage three. Normally this kind of final would suit him so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do after his comeback. On the final stage, we will be focusing on Mauro, but we also want to see what guys like Finlay Pickering, Paul Double, Rudy Porter, and Asbjørn Hellemose can do. On paper, it looks like a very interesting Tour de Suisse, and all of our boys are in good shape, so we’re looking forward to it.”
Shawn Clarke
“We’re pretty excited about the team we have going. We have some strong climbers in Talia and Nadia, good attacker in Mackenzie and Josie, and some faster options with Ruby and Letizia. I think it’s good to note that Talia will be joining us for her second WorldTour race, so we’re really excited to have her come up along with Mackenzie who graduated last year. It’s a really cool storyline to see and we’re excited to have this crop of youth coming up and to have them here.
Suisse is always a quirky race with fun courses, and you need to be versatile. I think that’s what we have with this team. The stage four time trial will be particularly interesting as we don’t do so many TTs. We’re looking forward to putting some energy into that and see what we can do. Of course, there’s an eye towards the time trial at the Tour de France.”
Tour de Suisse Men/Women – 17th to 21st June (5 stages)
Photos: Sprint Cycling
