To kick off the month of June, and in some ways the start of the summer racing with the Tour de France just around the corner, Tinkoff heads to the five-day Tour of Luxembourg in search of stage success. Due to the busy period the team is in, only five riders will be lining up at the race, however the lack of numbers is made up by the strong spirit and enthusiasm the riders come into the race with.
 
The team is shaped around taking the race day by day and seizing the opportunites that are available. With Oscar Gatto heading the roster, both as road captain and team leader, the Tinkoff team for the race is completed by four more riders who come to Luxembourg from California. Erik Baška, Adam Blythe, Michael Kolar and Nikolay Trusov all recently returned to the continent after playing a heavy role in Peter Sagan’s and Tinkoff’s success at the American tour, and will look to carry this motivation into the coming race.
 
Sport Director Lars Michaelsen explained further the team’s ambitions for the race.

“Being in a busy period of the season with riders finishing the Giro, and others training at altitude in preparation for coming targets, we can only line-up with five riders but we can see opportunities for ourselves here. We will take it day by day, and the responsibility won’t be on us, so with guys like Oscar and Erik we can hopefully look for results in the sprints or finishes for the puncheurs.”

The race gets underway with a short 2.9km evening prologue in Luxembourg City to define the jersey hierarchy for the opening road stage. The technical route will require concentration for the entirety of the short, sharp effort with several twists and turns to negotiate as well as two stretches of cobblestones.
 
The following road stages offer opportunities for both breakaways to succeed and also group sprints to fight out the stage wins. Stage 3 in particular looks to be a good opportunity with the race culminating in a finishing circuit including a climb each lap, the last of which crests with just six kilometres left to race.
 
“We have Oscar for the fast finishes and also Erik depending on how he has recovered from a tough race at California,” Michaelsen added. “I think stage 3 could be a good chance for us with the climb on the finishing circuit to lose the big sprinters. But we will make a plan together for each stage and see what we can do. We don’t come into the race with any big expectations, just to get stuck into the action.”