Stage one winner Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha)(Image credit: www.ispaphoto.com)
Janez Brajkovic (Team RadioShack)(Image credit: Sirotti)
Lars Boom (Rabobank) on the podium to become the first Dutch winner of the Tour of Britain.(Image credit: Rob Lampard)
Teams Katusha, RadioShack and Rabobank have announced their line-ups for the inaugural Tour of Beijing starting on Wednesday. The Russian and Dutch teams will look to their sprinters,while the US-based team is sending its stage racers.
Denis Galimzyanov will lead a Katusha team of six Russians, one Moldavan and a Belgian. The 24-year-old has three victories this season, winning stages at the Three Days of De Panne and the Tour of Luxembourg. He most recently won Paris-Brussels and has numerous top ten results on the season.
Rabobank's sports director Erik Dekker didn't name a captain, but the team is not only looking to sprinter Theo Bos but also time triallist Lars Boom. Boom most recently won the Tour of Britain, taking two stages, while Bos has five wins this season. Dekker said, “I think we can do a very good job here, maybe even win the race.”
Jani Brajkovic will lead RadioShack in the Chinese race. His only win this season was the Slovenian time trial title. Brajkovic was one of the team's co-captains going into the Tour de France, but had to abandon the race after a crash on the fifth stage left him with a broken collarbone and concussion. He will ride for Team Astana as of 2012.
“Brajkovic comes here from the Worlds in very good condition and (Haimar) Zubeldia can do a good race also,” said sport director Jose Azevedo on the race's website. “For us, it is important that we have a good time trial in this race and we have several guys who can do well on that stage – Brajkovic, Haimar and Nelson (Oliveira).”
Katusha for the Tour of Beijing: Denis Galimzyanov, Vladimir Isaychev, Artem Ovechkin, Alexandr Pliuschin, Alexander Porsev, Egor Silin, Nikolay Trusov, Stijn Vandenbergh
Rabobank for the Tour of Beijing: Lars Boom, Theo Bos, Stef Clement, Juan Manuel Garate, Paul Martens, Luis Leon Sanchez, Jos Van Emden, Dennis Van Winden
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Team RadioShack for the Tour of Beijing: Jani Brajkovic, Philip Deignan, Markel Irizar, Ben King, Tiago Machado, Dmitriy Muravyev, Nelson Oliveira, Haimar Zubeldia
