Ramon Sinkeldam is part of the highly successful Groupama - FDJ leadout that has over the last few weeks in Italy taken three stage wins and essentially close down the fight for the points classification, and he has talked about how the race was a big turning point in the team block's season.
Together with Arnaud Démare, Jacopo Guarnieri, Miles Scotson and Ignatas Konovalovas - the block rides together very often throughout the year in search of success in the sprints. Sucess that, until the Giro d'Italia began, was absent. The Dutch rider has talked to Wielerflits about how they went into the Corsa Rosa: “The team put a lot of pressure on us. Arnaud gave up last year in the Tour de France, and then did not win a stage in the Vuelta either. And that was followed by a bad spring in 2022. It doesn't help me if the team keeps repeating at every meeting that they are disappointed. That doesn't motivate me at all," he said.
He detailed how altitude training before the race in Sicily, and the good weather helped the group, but mostly it was the confidence that came from the Frenchman's first win in Messina. From there on things took a turn and Démare has quickly became the dominant sprinter in the race.
He's admitted that the pressure was building up within the team management, and the team's sprinting ambitions were the absolute priority coming into the race. “Even if they say that we all have an expiring contract and have to perform. As a sprint finisher, Jacopo Guarnieri, Arnaud and I have already done and won so many sprints that I don't doubt our qualities. But it has to fall into place. That was not there this spring," Sinkeldam said.
“But the fact that we were pressured by the team management prior to this Giro and that we respond with the pedals, that's really nice. And so this Giro is at the top of my list," he concluded. Sinkeldam is under interest of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team, however his success story in the French team continues.
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