THE HAGUE (AFP) — Dutch cycling outfit Skil-Shimano is set for a name change, and a new sponsor whose aim is to hoist the second division outfit into the World Tour ranks, team chief Iwan Spekenbrink said Tuesday.
UnitedHealthcare is emerging the winner in the transfer market for North American Pro Continental teams, announcing today a number of big acquisitions, headlined by veteran American Jason McCartney and emerging Irish talent Philip Deignan.
Rory Sutherland and Robert Förster are back with UnitedHealthcare in 2012. According to a team representative, the U.S.-based Pro Continental squad will announce the return of their top GC rider and the veteran sprinter Friday.
PENA CABARGA, Spain (VN) — Only two HTC-Highroad riders remain without contracts as the team enters the final days of its last grand tour.
A round-up of recent transfer news
The BMC Racing team won a hot competition for the contract of young American Tejay Van Garderen last month. Van Garderen told VeloNews Thursday that he looked forward to joining Cadel Evans and Taylor Phinney in a long-term assignment with the team, but was sad to see his HTC-Highroad team crumble.
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Robbie McEwen will get his dream by finishing up his pro career with an Australian team.
Quick-Step confirmed Thursday that Tony Martin, the German time trial specialist, will join the Belgian squad as part of a three-year deal.
Many riders from the soon-to-close HTC-Highroad squad will be revealing their new squads in the coming days.
PARIS (AFP) - Australia's new cycling team GreenEdge announced its latest recruit on Monday, Lithuanian Tomas Vaitkus.
Swiss rider Grégory Rast will join his compatriot Fabian Cancellara on pLeopard-Trek for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the team announced Monday.
American Brent Bookwalter and classics lynchpin Marcus Burghardt are among Cadel Evans’ support staff to re-sign with BMC Racing for 2012.
Simon Gerrans — the only Australian to win stages in all three grand tours — is the latest addition to the GreenEDGE team for 2012.
Redant, who left the Omega Pharma-Lotto team late in 2010 to join the failed Pegasus Racing project, will join UHC as European team director beginning with the USA Pro Cycling Challenge next week.
John Degenkolb — the German sprint phenomenon — will join Skil-Shimano as part of a two-year contract with the Dutch team. The 22-year-old has claimed six victories in his rookie season and looks to be a star in the making.
Aussie start-up GreenEDGE has confirmed that Sebastian Langeveld, the winner of this year’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, will join the squad in a move to bolster its lineup for the major one-day races.
Jacob Rathe has gone in one year from Jelly Belly amateur to stage winner in one of the toughest mid-level stage races in Europe. The 20-year-old Chipotle Development rider is set to move again in five months when he joins the top level of the sport with the Garmin-Cervélo ProTeam.
PARIS (AFP) — Former professional Allan Peiper has joined Garmin-Cervélo as director of competition for 2012, the American cycling team announced Friday.
PARIS (AFP) — Belgian Ben Hermans has signed a two-year deal with the Leopard-Trek team, the Luxembourg-registered outfit announced Thursday.
Green-jersey contender José Joaquín Rojas and Ángel Madrazo have each extended with Spanish outfit Movistar.
BRUSSELS (AFP) — Belgian cycling star Philippe Gilbert is edging closer to signing for American team BMC, according to Belgian press reports quoting the rider's manager Vincent Wathelet.
ANDENNE, Belgium (AFP) — Mark Cavendish's key lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, has signed a two-year deal that will see him spearhead Rabobank's bid for sprint success, the Dutch outfit confirmed Thursday.
Former Danish road champion Alex Rasmussen is the latest HTC-Highroad rider to find a new home for 2012. The winner of the 2011 Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, and four-time track world champion, will join Garmin-Cervelo next year.
Pieter Weening is the latest rider confirmed for the Aussie-backed GreenEDGE program.
THE HAGUE (AFP) - Mark Cavendish's key lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, has agreed a deal that will see the Australian become the top sprinter at Dutch outfit Rabobank for the next two years, according to a report Wednesday.
The speculation is over. World road champion Thor Hushovd will join BMC Racing for three years beginning in 2012, the team announced Tuesday.
Three-time Italian champion Giovanni Visconti and German sprint phenomenon John Degenkolb will have new teams for the coming season.
PARIS (AFP) - Experienced campaigner Stuart O'Grady has signed a two-year contract with GreenEdge, the nascent Australian team that is aiming for a UCI WorldTour licence starting in 2012.
Marco Pinotti, one of the veteran members of the HTC-Highroad team, says he cannot fully understand why cycling's most successful team is shutting down at the end of this season after a sponsor search came up short.
Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com added strength to the team’s women’s side this week with the addition of U.S. masters national champion Nicole Duke. In her third season of elite cyclocross racing, Duke will focus on a return to Europe and a run at the world championships in Koksijde, Belgium.
Rémy Di Gregorio will return to a French squad in 2012 after signing with Cofidis, the team announced Friday. Di Gregorio, 26, will leave Astana at the end of the season.
With the collapse of the HTC-Highroad team at the end of the 2011 season, all eyes are on where cycling's most productive sprinter will land next year.
New Australian team GreenEDGE has rolled out the first of many arrivals for its debut season next year.
PARIS (AFP) - Frenchman Tony Gallopin will ride for RadioShack as of next season after signing a two-year deal with the American outfit, according to the French Cycling Federation (ffc.fr) Thursday.
BOULDER, Colo. (VN) — Sébastien Rosseler will add more time trial and classics zip to Garmin-Cervélo in 2012.
LONDON (AFP) - British rider Mark Cavendish told the BBC on Tuesday that his best chance yet of winning the world road race title would come in Copenhagen in September. He also said he has chosen a team for next year, but declined to identify the team.
The Quick Step team is fast beefing up for 2012 and beyond. The team announced Tuesday that it has reached deals with three new athletes, the Slovak twins Martin and Peter Velits and Belgian Stijn Vandenbergh. The three have contracts with the team through the 2013 season, according to a team release.
French national champion Sylvain Chavanel’s has extended his contract with Quick Step for two more seasons, the team announced Tuesday.
It's not taking long for riders and teams to make moves with new transfer limit bumped back to August 1.
Cadel Evans will return to BMC Racing alongside George Hincapie in 2012, the team announced Monday. Fresh off his Tour de France title, Evans extended his contract with the American squad through 2014, while Hincapie signed a one-year extension.
The Australian is reporting that veteran Australian Stuart O'Grady, now with the Leopard-Trek team, will join the new Australian GreenEdge squad for the 2012 season. The paper also is reporting that sprinter Robbie McEwen, currently with RadioShack, is set to join the team as well.
Cuesta, who will turn 42 in June, landed a deal over the weekend with the Spanish pro continental team Caja Rural that will keep him the peloton through the 2011 season.
The Luxembourg team announces it has hired three more young riders: two from Denmark and one from the Netherlands.
The "team without a name" continues to make headlines in the off-seaon by filtering its signings in dribs and drabs, but who can blame them when there's not a lot going on.
As expected, Australian Stuart O’Grady will join several of his former Saxo Bank teammates on the new Luxembourg pro team headed up by Frank and Andy Schleck.
As reported last month, the Australian will join the British squad for the 2011 season.
The yet-unnamed Luxembourg cycling team continues to add more firepower, announcing Friday the arrival of Danish rider Jakob Fulgsang and the German duo of Linus Gerdemann and Fabian Wegmann.
Team Sky snags classics hope Davide Appollonio and classics veteran Jeremy Hunt from Cervelo TestTeam
Shelley Evans, Amber Rais Pierce and Sinead Miller will join Mara Abbott on the team next year
Italian sprinter Daniele Bennati has signed a two-year deal with the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project, the as-of-yet-unnamed team built around brothers Andy and Frank Schleck.
Lombardia will be Chechu Rubiera's last major race. In retiring, he says the state of Spanish cycling is 'sad and worrying' but he supports Contador.
The Shack hires a young Portugese time trial specialist and an Irish all rounder.
Germany's only ProTour team is stopping operations after it was unable to find a new sponsor
The U.S. criterium champ will bolster the sprint squad at Kelly Benefit Strategies
The Trek-Livestrong rider is one of three new riders for Team Sky announced Tuesday
The young Italian will join some of his current Cervelo TestTeam mates on the new team
Steven Cozza will switch from Garmin-Transitions to the NetApp team for 2011.
Reigning U.S. national champion and 2010 Giro Donne winner Mara Abbott has signed a deal to ride for Italy's Safi-Pasta Zara-Manhattan team.
Contract stability heading into 2012 Olympics was paramount for American phenom.
Just days off winning a stage and finishing second overall in the Vuelta a España, Ezequiel Mosquera wants to broaden his reach throughout Europe.
Four-time world track champ Alex Rasmussen wants to develop as a sprinter.
A Luxembourg newspaper is reporting that Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara will follow the Schleck brothers to a new team backed by still unnamed sponsors.
The former U23 world champ is heading to HTC for 2011
Gerald Ciolek is hoping to regain his winning kick with a move to Quick Step
Geox adds four more new riders as the transfer season continues
A day after a stage win, Carlos Barredo inks a two-year deal with Rabobank
Svein Tuft will leave Garmin for 2011 and join the new, still-unnamed Australian team
Ignatas Konovalovas and Marcel Wyss are the latest riders from Cervélo TestTeam to secure contracts for next season