Lotto extends contracts with four riders

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Lotto Belisol has extended the contracts of four more riders. Gert Dockx will stay with the team for another two years, while Olivier Kaisen, Tosh Van der Sande and Jonas Van Genechten have each signed one-year deals.

Dockx, 25, has been with the team since 2011. He took his first pro victories this year, wining two stages at the Tour of Gabon. He fractured his elbow and collarbone in a crash at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but quickly returned and was in fact able to ride the Giro d'Italia.

Kaisen, 30, joined the team in 2006. Van der Sande, 22, turned pro with the team in 2012, and rode the Vuelta a Espana as his first grand tour. He is actually a Classics specialist who won the U23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2011. The 27-year-old Van Genechten also joined the team in 2012, and this year won the Grand Prix Pino Cerami.

That gives the team 25 riders for the coming season. Eight riders have left the team and nine new riders have joined for 2014.

Newcomers to the team will be Sander Armee, Kris Boeckmans, Vegerd Breen, Stig Broeckx, Sean De Bie, Tony Gallopin, Pim Ligthart, Maxime Monfort, and Boris Vallee.  Leaving are Dirk Bellemakers, Gaeten Bille, Brian Bulgac, Sander Cordeel, Francis De Greef, Vincente Reynes, Frederique Robert and Jurgen Van de Walle.