Mark Donovan another name on Doug Ryder’s roster for 2023
British climber will move on from Team DSM after three years, with Jack Bauer also linked to the team.
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Mark Donovan has signed a contract with Doug Ryder’s second-division team for 2023. The British rider has spent the last three seasons at Team DSM but will race as part of Ryder’s new-look team next season.
Ryder is currently putting the finishing touches to his roster with Damien Howson, Gianluca Brambilla, and Matteo Moschetti already signed for next year. VeloNews understands that Jack Bauer, out of contract at Team BikeExchange, is a rider on the team’s radar but that the deal is not yet over the line.
Donovan had a strong start to his WorldTour career, and picked up two top-10 stage finishes at his grand tour debut at the Vuelta a España in 2020. He raced the Tour de France the following year but did not line up at a three-week race this season.
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Ryder has been quietly building a team after the demise of his WorldTour level team at the end of 2021. He has kept a small Continental team running this year but has found extra investment in Switzerland, while Scott is set to land the spot of bike supplier for the new team.
Alex Sans Vega, currently a sports director at the Human Powered Health Pro Cycling Team, Serge Pauwels, and Gabriel Missaglia have all been given spots in the team cars as directors, while Vincenzo Nibali, as already reported by VeloNews in August, has joined the team in a consultation role. The Italian will hang up his racing wheels at the end of this campaign.
It’s still unclear as to the name of the squad for next season with one source telling VeloNews that Ryder is still in discussions with several major titles. The source added that Ryder has enough financial support to get the team off the ground regardless of name on the jersey. Ryder did not respond when asked for comment by VeloNews.
In August VeloNews revealed that Ivan Glasenberg, a successful South African billionaire, is financially backing the project. One source told VeloNews that Ryder has both a title and secondary sponsor lined up.
Glasenberg retired as CEO of Glencore, one of the world’s biggest mining and commodities trading companies in 2021, but since then moved to Switzerland, where his passion for cycling blossomed. In 2021 Glasenberg also invested in Q36.5.