Bulgarian Bourgas team moves up a level

The current Bulgarian Cycling Club Bourgas is undergoing a serious change towards the 2009 road season. Belgian Franky Van Haesebroucke received a three-year contract to lead the Bourgas team towards a higher status; Van Haesebroucke led the American Navigators team back in 2004.

The Belgian manager explained what the Bourgas team is planning to do. "The main sponsor Pons Holding increased the budget for the next three years. We are building on the fundamentals of the Cycling Club Bourgas but we will now be located in Belgium.

"In 2009 we're a continental team and we're going to ride a program of races in Belgium, France and The Netherlands; hopefully we can ride a lot of category 1.1 and 2.1 races. In 2010 we want to be a professional continental team," Van Haesebroucke said.

"The team will consist of fourteen riders of which six are Bulgarians. I assume Daniel Petrov is the most well known among them," Van Haesebroucke referred to the rider, who is with Team Benfica this year and won the 2006 Trofeo Agostinho back. "Then there's the experienced former Slovakian champion Martin Prazdnovsky and probably also the talented young riders Darren Lapthorne – who is a former Australian champion – and his compatriot and former U23 TT champion Zakkari Dempster.

"The other spots are reserved for good riders from Belgium, France or The Netherlands. I was thinking about Niko Eeckhout but he recently signed elsewhere. Luckily there are enough other quality riders available to ride in a team with a good program like ours," he concluded.