Aldag close to deciding his future for 2012
German manager may take Erik Zabel with him
HTC-Highroad team manager Rolf Aldag has made sure that as many riders and team staff have found employment for the 2012 season but is now working on his own future. He hopes to be work with another WorldTour team and may well take former teammate and HTC-Highroad sprint consultant Erik Zabel with him.
“I have three more meetings this week. Then I will sleep on it and decide,” he told Yahoo.de. He is expected to make his announcement next week.
aldag hinted that Zabel may well join him at the new team. “We have known each other so long, and Erik has of course an unbelievable know-how. No team would want to miss out on that,” he said.
The future teams of only a handful of HTC-Highroad riders have so been announced, but most, if not all, have apparently found teams for 2012.
Cyclingnews understands that riders are contractually prohibited from announcing their new teams until September 1. However several teams have confirmed they have signed riders from HTC-Highroad. Martin and Peter Velits will ride for Quick Step, Patrick Gretsch and John Degenkolb for Skil-Shimano, Alex Rasmussen for Garmin-Cervelo, and Mark Renshaw for Rabobank.
Many of the team's top names have been linked to new teams. Mark Cavendish is widely expected to join Team Sky, while Milan-San Remo winner Matt Goss is likely to join GreenEdge. It has been reported that Tejay Van Garderen will move to BMC, while Tony Martin is still considering a number of offers after being linked to Quick Step and Leopard Trek.
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