McCarthy talks Bora’s dual threat at Tour of California

Australian cyclist Jay McCarthy is all set to contest his third Amgen Tour of California when the 12th edition of the seven-day UCI WorldTour stage race kicks off in the state capital of Sacramento on Sunday, May 14.

The 24-year-old Queenslander first raced the ATOC in 2013, when fellow Aussie and Tinkoff teammate Michael Rogers, who won in 2010 after finishing third a year earlier, finished second overall to American Tejay van Garderen (BMC). McCarthy raced again in 2015, which was won by teammate and current double world champion Peter Sagan.

“To me, it’s an awesome race,” McCarthy told Eurosport. “This is my third time and I’ve had two good experiences coming into this race with previous teams.

“For this race, I obviously have the world champion Peter Sagan and a top GC rider in Rafał Majka and a big goal for me is to support both of those riders in their overall ambitions this week.

“I do not possess any big ambitions for myself, but if it happens, it happens,” continued the 2012 New Zealand Cycle Classic champion. “But to support Peter and Rafał will be the ultimate goal for me coming into ATOC.”

Since the end of last year, all variations of Tinkoff no longer exist and instead more than a handful of its riders now fill the roster of new WorldTour squad Bora-Hansgrohe, which derived from UCI Pro Continental team Bora-Argon 18. In fact, Bora’s entire eight-man lineup for ATOC consists of former Tinkoff cyclists.

Two riders of note are Sagan, who has a win Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and two stages victories at Tirreno-Adriatico this season, and Majka — a three-time Tour de France stage winner and previous Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España top 5 general classification finisher.

Sagan holds the race record for most stage wins with 15 — five more than his nearest rival Mark Cavendish (GBR), who had to pull out of ATOC due to illness — and enters as an overwhelming pre-race favourite. Even Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) had to withdraw after recently suffering a concussion at the Tour de Yorkshire.

“Speaking to both of them, I can tell you that they are both very motivated,” claimed McCarthy. “Peter is always motivated to win and feels like at home here in California.”

However there will be a few challengers ready to deny Sagan further success, including Germans Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) and John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) and Italian Elia Viviani (Team Sky).

As a for Majka?

“Rafał has had good form early this season, but has yet to nail a big result,” explained McCarthy. “So he’s pretty hungry to do so now leading into the more important races heading into the Tour de France.

“He’s obviously a pure climber, but the climbs here are a bit more for a punchy rider,” he continued. “Rafał has shown he has the ability on the climbs and he’s a pretty good time triallist for the GC guys, so we will see how it goes. The ambition is definitely to be on the podium.”

It’s been nearly four months since McCarthy claimed third on general classification in the WorldTour opener at the Santos Tour Down Under in late January. But during that time he’s raced Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta a Pais Vasco (aka Tour of the Basque Country), where he finished sixth on points. McCarthy also took two straight top 20 results at Amstel Gold Race (17th) and Flèche Wallonne (19th), as well as solid finish at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (33rd).

But he insists this race is for his higher-profiled teammates which raises expectations on the team.

“It puts a lot of pressure on us,” admitted McCarthy. “We’ve shown that Peter has performed well here before, so we will have to see how it goes. But I think a lot of teams will look for us to take control early —which is fine.

“We have good depth and it should be a good race.”

As or any opportunities to sneak away for his own result while his rivals are focused on containing his teammates, McCarthy remained tight-lipped.

“There may be an opportunity here or there, but at the moment we will keep that under wraps and see what happens in the race,” he concluded.

Other Aussies on the startlist include reigning national road race champion Miles Scotson (BMC), Brendan Canty (Cannondale-Drapac), George Bennet (LottoNL-Jumbo), Chris Williams (Team Novo Nordisk), Chris Hamilton (Team Sunweb) and Dimension Data teammates Lachlan Morton and Mark Renshaw. New Zealander Jack Bauer (Quick-Step Floors) is the lone Kiwi in the field.