For Jasper his schedule remains largely the same as last year when he had some solid success. He starts his season in Tasmania which is new and was the last race we picked for him. For this season we are looking at improvement in one day classics starting with Milano-Sanremo where he'll be supported by Ivan Siric, but he'll also be working with Dusan Rajovic this season alternating between those two lead out riders. The race that will most likely define his season will be the Grand Tour, as he's off to the Tour this year. Competition there should be fierce, but we expect Jasper to get more than one podium result in France.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita
and only have to face Pogi in Colombia with Amezawa. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if you go 5/5 in goals, depending on who Pogi faces in Switzerland. Good luck!
Amezawa seems like the perfect rider type to finish ahead of Pogi in a race like Colombia. 5/5 is possible with favourable start lists in Giro, Suisse and if the races go chalk, which they usually don't.
For the most part Jaka takes over the role that was held by Schlegel with a very similar calendar. One main difference is that he will be going to both Grand Tours without Pogacar, but that's a change that we were always planning for. Outside the GTs where he'll most likely be hunting for stage results, the main hope for Jaka to have a good season is to be competitive in the one day races where he can hopefully put his strong stamina and resistance to good use.
Bostjan Mervar,
team representative and general manager of Cedevita
Jasper Philipsen starts the Pro Tour season with a stage win in Tasmania
Martin Hvastija:
In the early stages of season planning this race was meant to be one for developing unmaxed riders. Later we ended up deciding Jasper will start his season here so we came up with a squad to support him on the lone sprint stage. It was great to see him work so well with Dusan on their first try. After that Jasper showed some good legs to stay in touch on the hilly stage to finish 25th overall. We couldn't have asked for anything more.
Race score: 10/10
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