Roberto Ferrari (UAE Team Emirates)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 2 in Croatia(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Odd Christian Eiking (FDJ)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Damien Gaudin (Equipe Cycliste Armée de Terre) on the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Julien Trarieux (France) puts in a podium-winning performance.(Image credit: Tour of Japan)
UAE Team Emirates announced on Monday contract extensions or renewals for seven of its current riders, keeping them through the end of the 2019 season.
Italians Matteo Bono, Roberto Ferrari and Simone Petilli along with Croatian Kristjan Durasek renewed for two more years, while three Italians: Simone Consonni, Valerio Conti and Marco Marcato have added one year to their existing contracts.
"We are continuing to move forward with the goal of building a formation that can be increasingly competitive and in order to achieve certain objectives we want to build the team roster around a solid base," explained team manager Carlo Saronni
"The seven riders whose contracts have been renewed or extended have proven to have the right skills suited to our project and to the values that comprise it. We are happy to be able to include them in our group once more."
The 22-year-old comes across from FDJ, fresh off a 13th place overall in the Tour de Pologne.
"I am excited about joining the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team next year. I am already very much looking forward," Eiking said.
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"I noticed the team during the last years in big international races as Volta Catalunya and of course during the first participation and performances in the recent Tour de France. I am more of a climber-puncher type and I hope to keep improving over the next years in the team. One week races and the one day classics are my preferred type of races. Especially the Ardennes classics should suit me well. My main goal is to win races and achieve good results during the whole season."
Direct Energie and Damien Gaudin back together again from 2018
Frenchmen Damien Gaudin will rejoin Jean-René Bernaudeau's Direct Energie team from 2018 following confirmation from the Pro-Continental squad. Gaudin rode the team's development squad Vendée U before turning professional in 2008. He remained with the team through to the end of the 2013 season before moving into AG2R-La Mondiale. He spent two seasons with the WorldTour team and stepped down to Continental level in 2017 with Armée de Terre.
The 2017 season has been Gaudin's most successful to date with Tro-Bro Léon victory, the Tour of Luxembourg and Volta a Portugal prologues along with stages at the 2.2 ranked Tour de Normandie and Le Tour de Bretagne Cycliste.
The 30-year-old joins Direct Energie on a two-year deal and is the fifth new signing for the team. In his last season with the team, Gaudin won Cholet - Pays De Loire, the Paris-Nice prologue, and was fifth at Paris-Roubaix.
While Direct Energie has added to its 2018 roster, it will farewell the likes of Thomas Voeckler,Bryan Coquard, Antoine Duchesne, and Tony Hurel at the end of the season. Fabrice Jeandesboz also announced he will retire at the end of the season following nine years in the pro peloton.
De Rossi joins from the well renowned Vélo Club la Pomme Marseille development team and a previous connection with the team having ridden for Delko Marseille Provence KTM as a stagiaire in 2016. The 21-year-old is promising GC rider and bolsters the squad.
Trarieux, 24, is a former junior national French 'cross champion and U23 mountain bike national champion. Trarieux also won the silver medal in the 2010 junior men's mountain bike Worlds. He was involved in a training ride accident with a car last year, breaking four vertebrae and undergoing surgery.
