News Shorts: Ventoso completes Movistar roster, Uran targets nationals
Wanty-Groupe Gobert goes CUBE; Madison Genesis announces roster
The Movistar team completed its 2015 roster with the renewal of Spaniard Francisco Ventoso. The 32-year-old signed on for one more season.
"It's been really rewarding for me to see my work appreciated after such a season focused on the squad and my teammates," Ventoso said. "[there were] less individual results, yet the same effort. I'm really happy with what I did and extremely thankful about this renewal."
The 28-rider team remained largely the same, with the addition of neo-pro Marc Soler (Lizarte, elite2), Rubén Fernández from Caja Rural-RGA, Winner Anacona (Lampre) and Rory Sutherland (Tinkoff-Saxo).
Sylvester Szmyd, Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) and Jose Ivan Gutierrez were the only riders not returning.
Movistar for 2015: Andrey Amador, Winner Anacona, Igor Antón, Eros Capecchi, Jonathan Castroviejo, Alex Dowsett, Imanol Erviti, Rubén Fernández, John Gadret, Jesús Herrada, José Herrada, Beñat Intxausti, Gorka Izagirre, Ion Izagirre, Pablo Lastras, Juanjo Lobato, Adriano Malori, Javi Moreno, Dayer Quintana, Nairo Quintana, José Joaquín Rojas, Enrique Sanz, Marc Soler, Rory Sutherland, Jasha Sütterlin, Alejandro Valverde, Fran Ventoso, and Giovanni Visconti.
Urán targets Colombian national championships
His 2015 plans are yet to be laid out, but Rigoberto Urán (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) has announced that his first major target of next season will be the Colombian national championships. Many of the top Colombians miss the national championships as they are already in Europe competing or taking part in training camps but Urán believes that many more will make the journey this season.
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“I will be at the national championships and many of us who are in Europe will compete,” he said at the launch of a gallery of cycling photos. “It is important that the people continue to have us close and see us competing in our own country, where we began.
“It’s an issue that we’ve been talking about a lot, the riders in Europe and we will get together because we want to race. Obviously it will be difficult to win, but it would be an honour to be able to compete in Europe with the Colombian champion’s jersey.”
Colombia’s biggest moment this season came at the Giro d’Italia where Nairo Quintana became the first rider from the country to win the pink jersey, with Urán spending several days in it himself and going onto finish second. Julian Arredondo also went on to take the mountains classification and between them they won four stages.
Urán couldn’t be pinned down on his goals for the remainder of the season, but he seemed to lean towards a return to the Giro d’Italia. “The Giro is a very attractive route, a 60km time trial, which could be quite good. In the Tour de France there is no time trial (stage one features a short 14km individual time trial - ed), there are highly explosive stages, but after all they are all very hard."
The Colombian national championships will take place between 3 and 9 February. Miguel Angel Rubiano is the defending champion.
Wanty-Groupe Gobert on CUBE bikes in 2015
Team Wanty-Groupe Gobert will ride CUBE bikes in the coming season. The Belgian Pro Continental team announced Friday that the German bike brand will supply the team with road and time trial bikes
“I am very happy with this new partnership,“ Wanty-Groupe Gobert team manager Jean-François Bourlart said. “CUBE and Wanty-Groupe Gobert have lots in common. They are the ideal partner to obtain our objectives in 2015 and beyond.”
CUBE was also happy to sponsor the team. “We are proud to become sponsor of a team with the level of Wanty-Groupe Gobert. The feedback we will get from the riders will directly be used in the development of our road and time trial bikes. The input from professional athletes is of great importance to help our engineers bring the highest quality to our customers. We are therefore looking forward to a long and rewarding partnership.”
Madison Genesis announces 2015 roster
Madison Genesis has announced its 14-rider roster for the 2015 season. The British Continental team has signed seven new riders for the coming season.
Joining the team are Matt Cronshaw, Joe Evans, Martyn Irvine, James McLaughlin, Mark McNally, Tristan Robbins and Erick Roswell. The seven hold-overs from 2014 are Matthew Holmes, Liam Holohan, Tobyn Horton, Dom Jelfs, Michael Northey, Tom Scully and Thomas Stewart.
"The 2014 racing season was a great success for the team and I feel the transfer season was a continuation of that. I am really pleased the successful core of this year's team is returning again next year, ensuring we already had a very firm foundation with which to build the team.” said team manager, former pro rider Roger Hammond.
“With the variety of the new riders coming to the team, from National Junior champions through to international race winners, I couldn't have hoped for a better line up to go into battle with next year. It going to be exciting!"
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