Roche and Power join Dumoulin and Matthews, van Dijk leaves women's team
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Team Sunweb celebrate their victory(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Team Sunweb finished second in the 2018 team time trial world championship(Image credit: Getty Images)
Team Sunweb won the big fish in the Norway TTT(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) second overall at the Tour de France(Image credit: Getty Images)
Coryn Rivera (Sunweb) wins 2018 US Pro Road Championships in Knoxville(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Team Sunweb has confirmed the rosters of their men's, women's and development teams for 2019, with Tom Dumoulin, Michael Matthews leading the men's WorldTour squad and Coryn Rivera, Lucinda Brand and Leah Kirchmann leading the women's team. The development programme includes 14 riders, who will be based in the teams so-called Keep Challenging Center in Sittard, near the Dutch-German border
Team Sunweb won just 11 races but victories fail to tell the story of the team's season. Dumoulin confirmed his Grand Tour talents by finishing second in both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, winning time trial stages in both races. He was second in the individual time trial at the World Championships in Innsbruck and was also second with Team Sunweb in the team time trial.
Matthews fractured a bone in his shoulder at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and quit the Tour de France due to illness before stage 5. He bounced back to win the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. Søren Kragh Andersen showed his talents by winning Paris-Tours at the end of the season, with sprinters Max Walscheid and Phil Bauhaus taking victories. Wilco Kelderman’s season was hit by a fractured collarbone but he returned to finish tenth at the Vuelta a España.
Seven riders and coaching staff left Team Sunweb after the 2018 season, with veterans Laurens ten Dam and Simon Geschke surprisingly moving to CCC. New arrivals to help Dumoulin in Grand Tours include Nicolas Roche, Australia’s Robert Power, along with Chad Haga, Roy Curvers, Sam Oomen and Leonard Kemna, with Team Sunweb having just 25 riders for 2019.
Dumoulin has still to choose between targeting a second victory at the Giro d’Italia or fully focusing on the Tour de France.
The women's Team Sunweb squad matched the men’s team, winning 18 races in 2018, including the OVO Energy Women's Tour with Rivera, who also won the US national title. Ellen van Dijk was consistently successful throughout the season and was third in the individual time trial at the World Championships.
Team Sunweb won the team time trials at Giro Rosa, the Ladies Tour of Norway and the Madrid Challenge but was third in the World Championships team time trial behind Canyon-Sram and Boels-Dolmans.
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New signing for 2019 included talented British junior Pfeiffer Georgi, Janneke Ensing of the Netherlands and Susanne Andersen of Norway. Van Dijk has moved to the new Trek-Segafredo team.
Team Sunweb men's development: Nils Eekhoff, Felix Gall, Leon Heinschke, Ben Katerberg, Edo Maas, Niklas Märkl, Marius Mayrhofer, Jarno Mobach, Tim Naberman, Martin Salmon, Nils Sinschek, Florian Stork, Xandres Vervloesem, Ludvig Anton Wacker.
