Alex Rasmussen (HTC Highroad) (Image credit: www.ispaphoto.com)
Alex Rasmussen has signed a two-year contract with Garmin-Cervelo. The Danish rider will switch from HTC-Highroad after his one-year deal the team came to an end following the demise of the team.
The 27-year-old will form part of the team's Classics strategy and help also Tyler Farrar in sprints, while Jonathan Vaughters believes his latest recuit has the talent to win races in his own right.
"He's a hugely talented rider," Vaughters told Cyclingnews.
"I've actually been interested in him in a number of years but it just hasn't worked out. We either didn't have space on the team or there have been various other reasons. He's a guy that has a really big future in a lot of disciplines. He can ride an excellent time trial and he's won a few of those. He can also be a great leadout rider and in his own right he can win races."
"He's got a big future ahead of him for the Classics too. He's very multi-dimensional. He can win time trials, he can help Tyler Farrar and Heinrich Haussler win races and can fit into our Classics team."
Rasmussen has a strong track background, having won multiple national titles and four world titles. He won a silver medal in the team pursuit in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. However it was his performance on the road that year that truly caught Vaughters' eye, when the Dane took the points classification at the Tour of Qinghai Lake.
"He won the points jersey at the Tour of Qinghai Lake years ago and it gave me the heads up. He was just with the Danish national team, training for the team pursuit in the worlds. Qinghai Lake is a tough race so though if he can do that, then he must have more than just one ability."
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Rasmussen rode for Saxo Bank for two years from 2009 to 2010, and for HTC-Highroad in 2011, where he formed part of the team's winning ride in the team time trial at the Giro d'Italia. He also won the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship in June. He is currently riding the Eneco Tour.
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
