Katusha and Netapp Announce Tour Squads

AFP/Yuzuru Sunada

Katusha for 2014 Tour

Russian cycling team Katusha will compete in the Tour de France for the sixth time next month with hopes for stage wins both on the flat and in the mountains.

“This line-up reflects two main objectives for the team in the race,” Katusha said on its website after releasing the lineup for the race. “On the one hand Yuri Trofimov will fight for the Top-10 in the general classification. From the other side Alexander Kristoff will fight with the world’s best sprinters in the flat stages.”

In addition, top climber Joaquim Rodriguez will be given a role of a team freelancer in the mountains.

“We hope “Purito” (Rodriguez) will be able to find good form, which will allow him to fight for a stage win,” said team manager Viatcheslav Ekimov. “And, of course, other riders of the team will hunt for stage wins, too. I think Katusha is ready for a new three-week adventure and the only thing I would like to wish for our team is just some good luck, the only component we really missed at the Giro d’Italia.”

Vladimir Isaychev (RUS)
Alexander Kristoff (NOR)
Luca Paolini (ITA)
Aleksandr Porsev (RUS)
Joaquim Rodriguez (ESP)
Egor Silin (RUS)
Gatis Smukulis (LAT)
Simon Spilak (SLO)
Yury Trofimov (RUS)

Netapp for 2014 Tour

Czech rider Leopold Konig will lead German cycling outfit Netapp in the Tour de France which gets underway in Leeds, England on July 5. Netapp, one of four second division teams invited by organiers to compete in the three-week race, will line out with nine Tour newcomers.

Konig, 26, a stage winner in the last Tour of Spain in which he finished ninth, suffered a knee injury early this season but has come back strong finishing fourth in the Tour of Bavaria and 11th in the Criterium de Dauphine.

Jan Barta (CZE)
David de la Cruz (ESP)
Zak Dempster (AUS)
Bartosz Huzarski (POL)
Leopold Konig (CZE)
Tiago Machado (POR)
Jose Mendes (POR)
Andreas Schillinger (GER)
Paul Voss (GER)