Santiago Buitrago named Bahrain's winning leader at the Tour de France

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Santiago Buitrago named Bahrain's winning leader at the Tour de France

Bahrain named the debutant Santiago Buitrago as the leader of their general classification for the Tour de France. Colombia are lined up with experienced teams, including Pero Bilbao, Uuto Poels and Matei Moholic, who won all the stages on last year's tour.

Jack Haig is back on tour, with Fred Wright, Nikias Arndt and sprinter Phil Bauhaus also in the lineup.

Buitrago won the Mountain stage at the Giro d'Italia in 2022 and 2023, and last year's 10th place in the Vuelta a España was the best in his overall finish on the grand Tour so far. The 24-year・old won at the summit of Mont Broilly in Paris・Nice on May 3 and he was impressed by the final 2 mountain stages to take the overall place in the Criterium du Dauphinet, where he finished 11th.

"I'm really excited about my first Tour de France, the team and I have worked hard in Andorra at training camp, and I think this tour needs preparation from the very beginning," Buitlago said in a statement released by the team. "I'm fighting to do my best at GC, and there's really strong competition, but I'm there with the best talent if I follow my race,

Bilbao ranked 6th overall on last year's tour and claimed a great stage win at Issoir. He warmed up for this tour by winning the stage of the Slovenian tour, he also took 2nd place overall. Bahrain's victory has described Buitlago as the leader of the GC, but Bilbao will also aim for a high overall finish in Nice.

"My ambition will obviously be to win another stage," Bilbao said. "Last year, it was one of the most intense emotions I've ever lived in my cycling career, and there's nothing comparable to winning the stage at the Tour de France I'd like to repeat it. In the meantime, I want to focus on the GC as well and do the best race possible.

Mohorish has won three stages on the tour over the years, including his memorable victory at Poligny in the 2023 race 3. As the current Gravel world champion, Slovenia will certainly be front at Stage 9 in Trois.

"Personally, the two stages that I am most looking forward to are the gravel stage and Stage 18, and this could be a good opportunity for detachment" and Mohoriş "There are other opportunities throughout the race because things do not go as planned and we need to accept those opportunities.

Bauhaus leads the line in the bunch sprint and Arndt acts as his lead-out man. The Germans made their tour debut last year and were 2nd in Bayonne and 3rd in Nogaro and Moulin during the opening week. He warmed up for the tour with a stage victory on the tour of Slovenia.

The 2024 tour is underway in Florence on Saturday. 

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