The classics, stage races and development of talents - these are the major objectives of Giant-Alpecin. The German team presented its 2016 line-up at the Italian embassy in Berlin where they revealed their plans for the coming season.

Manager Iwan Spekenbrink outlined the plans in an interview with radsport-news.com.

"John [Degenkolb] is our big chance,” he told the German website. “He is now a world leader in the classics and in the hard sprints. We have two other guys, Warren Barguil and Tom Dumoulin, but they need more time. Please do not expect that they are now going to be on the podium in the grand tours. Tom Dumoulin will try to be one of the best time triallists this year. There are big time trial opportunities for him in the Giro and at the Olympic Games in Rio. Warren Barguil will try to improve first in week-long stage races and then in the grand tours.. However, both still need two or three years in order to be as successful in the grand tours as John Degenkolb is in the classics.”

At the presentations, Barguil said that he aims at a top 5 in the Tour.

“It is good that he said that,” Spekenbrink said. “But we have to protect him. We believe that Warren can do it in the next two or three years. First he must build a good foundation, with shorter stage races of eight days like Paris-Nice or the Tour de Romandie and then a grand tour.”

Giant-Alpecin started as a Dutch team but last year they registered themselves in Germany which is now the home country.

"The potential is huge,” Spekenbrink said. “In Europe, Germany is the country in which most people ride a bike. We have to be something from them.

"First of all, we will do so by winning big races. We managed to do so with John Degenkolb he won Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix, ed.) But to really mean something, we have to do more. It will take some time. The best thing is to invest in the next generation. That’s the future of cycling. I think we are building something good.

"We make something like a pyramid. The base will be the Talent Days which will be held in early June in Bielefeld. There we want to inspire young people to get on their bike. For some of them, it can be what prompts them to try themselves in cycling with the goal of one day joining the WorldTour. The middle part between talents and WorldTour professionals will be to build the development team which will be required for all WorldTour teams as part of the new UCI reforms. In the Development team, we want to give the talent the best opportunities to get to the top.”

One of the biggest German talents is former junior time trial world champion Lennard Kämna.

"Of course we know Lennard Kämna, that's our job,” Spekenbrinks said. “Howeber it is not only Kämna. Germany has more great talents. For example, a junior time trial world champion (Leo Appelt, ed.). Of course, we follow their development. And there will be a day when we try to attract such talents to out team.”