Wegmann with new team for 2012

Fabian Wegmann (Leopard Trek)

Fabian Wegmann (Leopard Trek) (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)

Fabian Wegmann is one of the Leopard Trek riders who will be leaving the team at the end of the season. However, the former two-time German national road champion will not be leaving the sport, as he has a new team lined up.

The Leopard Trek team is ending and will be reborn as RadioShack-Nissan-Trek in 2012. The merger of the two teams means that a number of riders have had to look elsewhere for rides in the coming year.

Even with the end in sight, “The mood is really good, not like I have experienced it with other teams.” And that is something that the 31 year-old has experience with. He turned pro in 2002 with Team Gerolsteiner, which folded after the 2008 season after losing its sponsor. Wegmann then rode for Milram for two years, until its sponsor withdrew.

“But this team isn't stopping at all,” he told de.eurosport.yahoo.com. “And things are continue me too,in any case. I can't say right now where, that is still to come – but I will absolutely stay in the professional peloton.”

Wegmann's name has been linked with Team Katusha, where former Gerolsteiner manger Hans-Michael Holczer will serve as general manager as of 2012.

This was the first season since 2002 that Wegmann has not won anything, but he noted that it had been a year of extremes, with the death of his roommate Wouter Weylandt at the Giro d'Italia followed by the arrival of his first child the end of June.

“The birth of my son was a unique happiness, which you can look back on your whole life. But Wouter's death was a terrible blow, and the weeks and months following it were not always easy.”

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