McCarty joins Landis in OUCH-town

Jonathan Patrick McCarty will ride for the OUCH presented by Maxxis squad in 2009 having signed with the former HealthNet team. McCarty has spent the past two seasons with American Professional Continental outfit Garmin-Chipotle.

"We'd been talking with Pat for quite some time," said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. "Only in the past week or so were we able to work out an agreement with him."

The move to OUCH will see McCarty re-unite with former teammate Floyd Landis. Both riders competed for Phonak in 2006, the year Landis won the Tour de France only to have the title stripped after a positive doping control and a drawn-out hearing.

"Pat is a quality rider with ProTour and Grand Tour experience," Tamayo said. "He's done the Giro d'Italia a couple times and he was instrumental in helping Floyd win the 2006 Amgen Tour of California with Phonak. He's going to be a real asset to the team for races like California and Missouri, as well as many of the NRC stage races we'll be doing. He should also be a good influence on several of our developing riders."

Racing strictly in the United States of America will be a bit of a change for McCarty, who turned professional with the U.S. Postal squad in 2004.

"Racing for an entire season in the U.S. will be a new challenge." McCarty said. "I'm very motivated to do some of the races I've never been able to do before.

"I'm really excited to be a part of the best U.S. domestic team," he said. "And joining up with Floyd again will definitely be fun."

The Texan will join all his teammates for the first time at the team's training camp in Southern California later this month.