Beulah Hansgrohe said that Emmanuel Buchmann was left out of the Giro d'Italia because of a "change in strategy" and that the German national champion was not promised a co-leader after Buchmann blasted his non-selection on social media earlier this week.

"Words cannot express how disappointed and frustrated I am that I was not nominated for this year's Giro d'Italia," Buchmann said in response to the team's announcement on Monday.

"I had planned for the Giro all year and even Bora Hansgrohe promised me a GC co-leader. I wanted to spend the last three weeks in Teide making final preparations, but 16 days before the start of the Giro I was informed that I would not be a member of the team."

Sport director Enrico Gasparotto revealed to Sporza that the team was surprised by Buchmann's statement, who had been promised co-leader status in the first men's Grand Tour of the season. The Italian said the decision was simply a tactical change, as Leonard Kemna, who was supposed to be co-leader, was sidelined last month after being hit by a driver at the team's training camp.

"I was surprised to read that they promised to co-direct with him. That's something new for us. It is not right," Gasparotto told Sporza.

"In the first meeting with the players in November, we discussed that (Dani) Martinez and Kemuna would be two classmates in the Giro.

"I called Buchmann and explained that we had adjusted our strategy somewhat due to Kemna's injury.

As Kemna was left in the intensive care unit in Tenerife after sustaining numerous injuries in a training accident, Bora Hansgrohe shifted his focus to GC Dani Martinez.

Thankfully, the team released an update today that former Giro and Tour de France stage winner Kemna has been released from the hospital and will head to Hamburg to be treated by the team's medical department.

"As a team, we want to go into the Giro with a versatile rider who can win from the break," Gasparotto said. 'That's why we included Jonas Koch in our Giro selection. He can climb and he's fast, so even if the peloton is thin, he can still win in the sprints."

Sprinter Sam Welsford, who was originally scheduled to make his Giro debut, was also left out of the Giro. Danny van Poppel will take on the flat stage with Ryan Mullen as lead-out.

"You'll have to ask the team why. But maybe they see that I am currently better than the leaders," a slightly surprised van Poppel told the Dutch newspaper BN DeStem

"After running with Sam (Bennett) for two years, I try to focus on what I have to do now. The team didn't pick Sam (Welsford). That's fine. Then it's up to me. I'm a much better rider than I was three years ago."

Max Schachmann, Patrick Gamper, Giovanni Aleotti, and Florian Lipowitz, who broke through at the Tour de Romandie, make up the rest of the roster along with Martinez, Koch, and the sprint duo.

Buchmann has yet to return to his career-best form in 2019, when he won a stage at Ituria-Basque before finishing fourth overall at the Tour de France and third at the Criterium du Dauphiné.

He struggled somewhat in 2024, with spring highlights including 17th in the Tour of Oman, 27th in the UAE Tour, and 32nd in Ituria Basque. But Gasparotto suggested that even if a team is on a roll, riders must understand when a team makes a strategic change.

"In 2018, I was third in Amstel and sixth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Then my team, Bahrain-Merida, decided to exclude me from the selection a week before the Giro," said Gasparotto, who once won the Amstel Gold Race twice. 'At the time I was disappointed too.

"However, if certain events that have occurred in recent months have changed the team's strategy, the riders must understand and accept this."