German professional cycling team Bora – Argon 18 received a Tour de France wildcard for the second time in a row. Three weeks before the start of the World’s most prestigious race, the team of manager Ralph Denk decided on the extended line-up of 13 riders. These riders will be able to qualify for the final selection of nine riders within the next ten days.

"We will start with a dual leadership in this year’s Tour de France. 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", says Ralph Denk, Team Manager of Bora – Argon 18.

"In addition, Dominik Nerz is our man for the general classification. 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", continues Denk.

"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 in select stages such as Jan Barta in the time trial", Denk concludes.

Bora – Argon 18 appoints the final squad after the Ster ZLM Toer on June 23.

Long list Bora – Argon 18 for the Tour de France 2015:

Jan Barta, Cesare Benedetti, Sam Bennett, Emanuel Buchmann, Zakkari Dempster, Bartosz Huzarski, Patrick Konrad, Jose Mendes, Dominik Nerz, Cristiano Salerno, Andreas Schillinger, Björn Thurau and Paul Voss.