By Brecht Decaluwé
Cycling Center General Manager Bernard Moerman is very happy with the season so far. "During the last month our team was never lower than fourth team in any significant UCI-race or stage race we started. Riders like Steven Van Vooren, Bruno Depoorter, Kalle Sandell, David Nelson, Jim Calmut and Aaron Pool are really showing their improvement - and the value of the program - with consistent top-10-results," Moerman said to Cyclingnews.
"We started our season with a very good training camp in our home-base Albuquerque, New Mexico, and that is for sure a big reason of our success. Our international selection with riders from USA, Belgium, Sweden, Bahrain, Canada and Colombia is for sure growing; also in the USA, CC-members like Peter Horn, Kiel Reijnen and Yarden Gazit did very well at Collegiate Nationals and we cannot forget that Koen Maris became Belgian Duathlon Champion last week."
"The sport results and the media attention because of our 'I support drug free sport' policy are very welcome at this point since we are in final negotiations with some sponsors to make the next step," Moerman explained.
Cyclingnews asked the Belgian manager if those negotiations were influenced by the actual doping-stories in cycling and Moerman was very clear. "What others did or do I cannot prove, I can only talk for myself and our programs. We can prove that since ten years we have a zero-tolerance policy and all test results and files are stored so that we can deliver coaching reports from several years per rider. This way we can prove our riders are working clean in a solid environment.
"In our negotiations with new sponsors these proofs have been on the table, so we don't need to be nervous," Moerman made clear that he doesn't fear that the current doping stories will influence the final decision of sponsors. "The improvement of our riders is caused by the combination of their talent and determination, and our professional guidance based on more then fifteen years of experience. So let's keep up the hard work and let's concentrate on what is coming," the experienced manager said.
"Although growing the program from our USA-base in Albuquerque, New Mexico is a big priority now, we still focus on the second part of the season with still more then twenty big UCI-races and six stage races in Europe to go in June, July and August."
