Belgian pro footballer starts Continental team

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Belgian footballer Timmy Simons has joined forces with current Omega Pharma-QuickStep director Wilfried Peeters to create a new cycling team that will focus on both cyclo-cross and road cycling. Simons is a fifty percent shareholder in Belgian real estate company Vastgoedservice - which translates to Real Estate Service - and according to Het Laatste Nieuws, he and fellow shareholder Geert Vanhoof have decided to invest in a cycling project of their own.

"With the crisis in cycling there are many free riders. So we thought it was a great opportunity to start a new road and cyclo-cross team," Simmons told VTM. "We have a budget for 15 riders."

Rob Ruijgh (Vacansoleil-DCM), Kevin Peeters (Crelan-Euphony) and Kevin Hulsmans (Vini Fantini) are all set to form the backbone of the team's road squad with the experienced Hulsmans already announced as the road captain. Rob Peeters and Joeri Adams (Telenet-Fidea), Jens Adams (BKCP-Powerplus) and Yannick Peeters are also linked to the new team.

Wilfried Peeters will also be involved with the team part-time, taking on a role as director during the cyclo-cross season.

"That [working as a QuickStep director] remains my main job all year long. This new team I will work with mainly in the winter, during the cyclo-cross season," Peeters told Sporza. "At first they just wanted to focus on cyclo-cross, but due to the crisis in road cycling we were also able to establish a Continental team.

"Timmy Simons is a shareholder of Vastgoedservice, but will not sit in the follow car, no. We can talk with other team leaders."