Irishman Sam Bennett has been announced in the Bora Argon 18 long list for the 2015 Tour De France and will make his Grand Tour debut his team have announced.
Bennett, who has shown some fine form this season, has been named in this list by the German based Pro Continental team, who have been handed a wildcard invitation to the World's Greatest Bike Race which starts on July 4th in Utrecht, Holland.
Team manager Ralph Denk has named thirteen riders but will reduce that down to nine after the Ster ZLM Toer.
"We will start with a dual leadership in this year’s Tour de France,” Denk said in a press statement.
“Therefore, we decided already on the key positions in our squad. After the very successful first half of the season, Sam Bennett will make his debut in a Grand Tour. He is one of the fastest men in the peloton and he deserves to compete with the best sprinters in the biggest race of the world.
"In addition, Dominik Nerz is our man for the general classification,” Denk said. “We work with him very hard on his preparation since the beginning of the year. After a setback in the winter by an illness, we are now completely on schedule.
"In accordance with this, we’ll add riders to our tour line-up who support Sam in the sprint preparation and are helpful for Dominik in the mountains. The squad further will be completed with riders who can achieve a result at selected stages, such as Jan Barta in the time trial.”
Long list Bora-Argon 18 for the Tour de France 2015:
Jan Barta (30, CZE), Cesare Benedetti (27, ITA), Sam Bennett (24, IRL), Emanuel Buchmann (22, GER), Zakkari Dempster (27, AUS), Bartosz Huzarski (34, POL), Patrick Konrad (23, AUS), Jose Mendes (30, POR), Dominik Nerz (25, GER), Cristiano Salerno (30, ITA), Andreas Schillinger (31, GER), Björn Thurau (26, GER), Paul Voss (29, GER)