Team Cannondale takes shape as Vaughters lines up new roster

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Team Cannondale's roster for 2015 continues to take shape after Alex Howes and Davide Formolo recently committed their futures to the American WorldTour team.

Howes and Formolo personify the team’s roots and future prospects: the American having risen through Garmin-Sharp's development system, and Formolo joining as part of the deal with Cannondale's current set up.

Of Garmin’s existing roster of 29, 14 have contracts for next year. David Millar – a member of the team since their inaugural WorldTour season in 2008 - is set to retire from the sport while Rohan Dennis moved to BMC at the start of August.

The team confirmed to Cyclingnews that Janier Alexis Acevedo, Nate Brown, André Cardoso, Tom Danielson, Lasse Norman Hansen, Ryder Hesjedal, Alex Howes, Ben King, Sebastian Langeveld, Dan Martin, Ramunas Navardauskas, Tom Jelte Slagter, Andrew Talansky and Dylan van Baarle all have deals for next year.

The partnership with Cannondale, who join as the team’s title sponsor, will see up to eight riders move from the Italian current team although Davide Formolo is the only one to put pen to paper so far.

“We still have between five and eight places available,” Vaughters told Cyclingnews. "We’re in talks with many riders and we’re obviously trying to build the best team we can. What I can say is that we’ll look to have an overall strong team but the emphasis is moving more towards stage races and the Ardennes.”

Vaughters can have a roster of up to thirty riders on his team for next year, as stipulated by the UCI rules. However he stressed that budgetary consideration would be the key factor in any recruitment drive.

From Garmin-Sharp’s existing team Jack Bauer, Thomas Dekker, Caleb Fairly, Koldo Fernandez, Phillip Gaimon, Raymond Kreder, Lachlan Morton, Nick Nuyens, Johan Vansummeren, Tyler Farrar, Steele von Hoff and Fabian Wegmann are out of contract.

Vaughters would not confirm which riders from the out of contract list would be offered new deals but Cyclingnews understands that at least Bauer and Vansummeren would be given offers.