Spanish team hold training camp ahead of new season
Caja Rural on the front (Image credit: Tour of Turkey/Brian Hodes)
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA look set to continue their plan of developing young riders as they set their stall out at a recent training camp in Spain this week.
The Pro Continental outfit, with both their elite and U23 programmes, met in Tudela, Navarra in with the team's primary goal of getting to know each other.
"We always have this kind of first get-together to meet the new riders and explain everybody the way we will be working and which races we aim to take part in next year. We also had meetings with our sponsors, telling the riders which kind of material they will be using," said team director Josemi Fernández.
"Looking at the roster, we have renewed the contracts with most of our riders, so, once again, it's a very young team. Riders like Benito, Lastra and Rosón will have a chance to continue to evolve and confirm their great talent."
The Pro Continental team has announced 19 riders for 2017, but are set to unveil one more – this time from the United States – in the coming days.
Veteran rider David Arroyo added his hopes for 2017 with the one-time Giro d'Italia runner-up explaining how he would look to pass on his experience.
"This first team meeting went very well. We have many young riders who are eager to continue growing and developing as professional cyclists. This is something the team is very good at nurturing. I hope to continue to contribute to this and help these guys as much as I can."
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One rider who will not be on the team in 2017 is Amets Txurruka. He rode for the team for three seasons before spending 2016 with Orica BikeExchange. There had been speculation that the rider could be on his way back to the Caja Rural but this was ruled out on Saturday when the squad was contacted by Cyclingnews.
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA 2017 roster: Alex Aranburu (Euskadi - Murias), David Arroyo , Miguel Ángel Benito, Chris Butler, Fabricio Ferrari, Jon Irisarri (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA U23) , Jonathan Lastras, Lluis Mas, Antonio Molin, Dylan Page (Roth - Skoda) , Sergio Pardilla , Eduard Prades, Rafael Reis (W52 - Porto) , Jaime Rosón, Diego Rubio, Héctor Sáez, Nick Schultz (SEG Academy Racing), Yuri Trofimov (Tinkoff) , Josu Zabala (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA U23)
