There Lidl – Trek announced his eight men for the Tour de France 2024 and, for the second consecutive year, Bauke Mollema it’s not on the list. For the expert Dutch runner, the failure to be called up to the Grande Boucle comes, as he himself tells al De Telegraaf, like a cold shower, especially in light of the commitment he himself has put into training with the hope of being among the starters in Florence on June 29th. After retiring from the recent Tour of Switzerland, the Dutchman took part in the national championships in both the road race and the time trial, finishing the races in 15th and 8th place respectively and proving ready to support Giulio Ciccone and Mads Pedersen in the hunt for stages.
The choice of the US team instead fell on other riders, leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the 37-year-old, who says he is now demotivated: “Initially, this winter I didn’t expect to participate in the Tour de France. Our team became much stronger and my chances of participating were low. But then I did very well in the spring classics and the Tour of the Basque Country, and then the opportunity came. I started to believe it again, but unfortunately I won’t go to Italy. It’s an even more bitter pill because this was probably my last chance to participate in the Tour because the competition is increasingly fierce. Now the motivation is gone. I’m not motivated to race the Tour of Wallonia or the Vuelta Burgos. And I won’t even take part in the Vuelta a España, I didn’t like it last year.”
Despite excellent preparation and the injury to Tao Geoghegan Hart which forced the Briton to give up the Grande Boucle, therefore, the doors of his 13th Tour de France will not open for Mollema, but this does not mean he will stop fighting for continue to compete with the best: “This is just a moment. Disappointments are part of sport at a high level but this year I noticed that I have made some progress. I have a new coach and it’s having an effect on him. The fact that I’m not allowed to race the Tour bothers me and makes me lose motivation, but it will come back.”
