"The Amgen Tour of California is an exciting race with quite a few tricky stages where late attacks could avoid a bunch sprint," said team coach Aike Visbeek. "It is also important to be aware of certain circumstances, such as the crosswinds or the heat. Overall, it's a challenging course that should suit the all-rounders instead of the pure climbers.”
Degenkolb was one of six Giant-Alpecin riders involved in a head-on crash with an automobile while training this January in Spain. He has been recovering from a severe hand injury and only began his season on May 1 with the one-day GP Frankfurt.
Ten Dam, who moved from the LottoNL-Jumbo team to Giant-Alpecin this season, has been used sparingly so far this year, racing only 14 days at Paris-Nice and Volta a Catalunya. He spent the month of April at his adopted home of Santa Cruz, California, training for next week's race.
"For the overall classification, we will focus on Laurens and I expect a fight for every second all the way to Sacramento," Visbeek said. "For stage results, we have several options, primarily with Ramon in a possible bunch sprint. For John it is all about gaining race rhythm and there is no immediate pressure for him to deliver results."
Giant-Alpecin for Tour of California: Søren Kragh Andersen, Roy Curvers, Laurens ten Dam, John Degenkolb, Caleb Fairly, Koen de Kort, Sindre Skjøstad Lunke and Ramon Sinkeldam
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