O'Grady happy with contract renewal

"Continuing on the team is the obvious thing for me to do in order to concentrate on the classics, in which I have a lot of experience and also results," said 32 year-old South Australian Stuart O'Grady on team-csc.com, soon after signing a two-year extension with his current team and just before taking the lead at the Tour of Denmark on Friday.

"At the same time, I'm looking forward to the big stage races," he added, "where I have a new role with a lot of responsibility and my job will be to protect our team captains.

"There's no doubt joining Team CSC has given my career a boost. The team has big confidence in me and supported me right from day one. Bad luck has prevented me from making the results I'd been hoping for, but there are still some good races ahead of us. I really enjoy being a part of Team CSC, where I've established a lot of friendships. Now I know what lies ahead of me for the coming years, and that gives me the opportunity to achieve many big results together with the team," said O'Grady.

Continued team manager Bjarne Riis, "Stuart is a world class rider. He's experienced and a very nice person, who fits in well with the rest of the team. He's a big profile and I'm very happy we can keep him on board.

"He's a complete rider, who can win the classics and also do well in the time trials. At the same time, Stuart is one of the riders who can take on a big responsibility and make it work out on the roads - especially in a big race like the Tour de France," said Riis.