The cycling team Bora-hansgrohe is entering this year's Tour de France without the top German sprinter Pascal Ackermann.
The team from Upper Bavaria announced on Tuesday.
"In the end we decided against Pascal because we think that he is simply not in the form at the moment to give a successful tour premiere," said team manager Ralph Denk as the reason for the "difficult decision".
Instead, Emanuel Buchmann and Nils Politt will take part in the world's largest cycle race (June 26th to July 18th).
The 28-year-old Buchmann was actually only planned for the Giro d'Italia in 2021, but now wants to start in France after a fall in Italy.
However, the team has named Dutchman Wilco Kelderman as captains for the overall standings and former world champion Peter Sagan for the green jersey.
Ackermann, on the other hand, has to wait for his premiere on the tour.
“Our goals are a stage win and a top five result in the overall standings,” said Denk.
In addition to the German duo Buchmann and Politt and the captains Kelderman and Sagan, Bora-hansgrohe also nominated Patrick Konrad, Lukas Pöstlberger (both Austria), Daniel Oss (Italy) and Ide Schelling (Netherlands).