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Team Jayco-AlUla wants it all in 2024 with what it is calling its “strongest men’s roster in years”. But can it keep all five of its captains content, all at once?
The Aussie team is looking to click up a sprocket from its 17-win total of 2023 with a reinforced roster headlined by riders for all scenarios.
The returning Caleb Ewan joins Simon Yates, Michael Matthews, Dylan Groenewegen, and Eddie Dunbar to give the Aussie team five figureheads covering sprints, GC, and classics.
“Our preparations for 2024 are well underway, and we believe that our men’s team roster is one of the strongest we’ve seen in recent years with these exciting new signings,” said team general manager Brent Copeland.
Luke Plapp, Max Walscheid, Mauro Schmid, and two high-touted youngsters also join to give the squad depth across its sprinter, GC, and one-day divisions. Veteran sport director Valerio Piva brings brains across from Intermarché-Circus-Wanty.
“It is very motivating for all of us heading into the new season with this strength and many options to target results in the biggest races,” Copeland said.
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Jayco-AlUla has now got all the horsepower it could wish for, but can it thread the needle five ways in its quest for heightened success in 2024?
Yates relished one of his best grand tours to date at the Tour de France in 2023, but the team’s other four leaders leave behind a season studded with DNFs, DNSs, and disappointments.
Every captain wants their chances, and Jayco-AlUla’s biggest task for the new year could lie in figuring how to give all five of Ewan, Yates, Matthews, Groenewegen, and Dunbar their opportunities at the most effective moments.
Winning it all, all at once
Can Jayco-AlUla do it all in 2024?
It’s got Alpecin-Deceununck to fend off in the sprints, Jumbo-Visma and UAE Emirates to tackle in the mountains, and the difficulty of keeping all its captains happy, all at once.
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The Jayco-AlUla brass is confident it can divide and conquer with its multi-prong approach.
The team is promising Groenewegen and Ewan their own dedicated leadout units and their own unique opportunities.
“We have been working on our sprint lead-out group a lot the past year and have added extra strength to it for next season,” Copeland said.
“To have two of the best sprinters in the world on the team, with Caleb and Dylan, it is important to have the right support group and we believe with our new rider signings, and the way our current riders have developed and gelled together this year, we will have one of the best sprint groups in the WorldTour peloton for the 2024 season.”
But when it comes to grand tour selections, things will get sticky.
Jayco-AlUla has the potential to take both a top-caliber sprinter and classification climber to all three of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España next year.
And of course, all five of Ewan, Yates, Matthews, Groenewegen, and Dunbar will want a July ticket for France.
Groenewegen and Ewan’s programs are yet to be confirmed, but one will be left disappointed when Copeland reads his Tour de France eight. No squad would take two sprinters to Le Tour, particularly when it’s got GC to worry about.
Murmurs suggest Yates will return to the Tour in 2024 after his fourth-place finish this summer, leaving Dunbar to take the lead at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España – just like he had to do this season.
The Irishman suffered a long wait for grand tour racing when he rode with Ineos Grenadiers, and having to delay his Tour de France debut even longer could cause consternation.
Likewise, neither Groenewegen nor Ewan will want to step back from a chance at racing alpha sprinter Jasper Philipsen through to “The Super Bowl of sprints” on Paris’ Champs-Elysées.
And then, of course, there’s “Bling” Matthews with his hunt for more grand tour stage silverware to consider, too.
The problem of Pogačar, Vingegaard, Philipsen and the peloton elite
Whatever its sprinter and GC selections, can Jayco-AlUla’s leaders step up a level in 2024?
The “big four” of Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, and Primož Roglič rule modern classification racing, while Philipsen looks a lightyear faster than the next-fastest in the bunch sprints.
Walscheid will bring more brawn to what is already one of the best-drilled leadout squads in the peloton, and Copeland is confident riders like Plapp, Chris Harper, and Filippo Zana have got the climbing legs to deliver Yates and Dunbar in the mountains.
“Over the past couple of years we have created a solid climbing group, riders that can win in their own right but also support our leaders to go for overall general classification results in the biggest races,” the team manager said.
“We have a lot of depth now in the team and with hugely talented riders joining us in 2024, we can only expect more in stage races and hilly one-day events.”
But are Yates and Dunbar able to go better than the “big four” when all the domestiques are done?
And can Ewan or Groenewegen beat Philipsen or Fabio Jakobsen in a drag-strip sprint when they’re unshackled from their leadout carriages?
Some would say balancing sprint and GC in one grand tour – for example, Yates and Ewan co-headlining at the Tour de France – stretches a team too thin. Neither specialty gets the depth of support, and both centerpieces suffer.
Jayco-AlUla’s biggest problem in 2024 won’t likely come down to a lack of resources. It will be about prioritizing when and where to use it to maximum effect.
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