Italy's Eva Lechner announced Monday that after spending most of her career with the Colnago Team, she has signed for the American squad Luna Pro Team beginning in the 2016 season. She made the announcement in a thank you letter to the Colnago bike manufacturer's founder Ernesto Colnago and to the Colnago Team.
Lechner is a world-class multidiscipline cyclist in mountain biking, cyclo-cross and road racing. She won the world championship mountain bike (team relay) and is a multi-time national champion in mountain bike, cyclo-cross and road. She secured the silver medal at the cyclo-cross World Championships in 2014 and opened this season with a victory during the first round of the cyclo-cross World Cup in Valkenburg, where she took the series lead.
“The end of 2015 will also be the end of the unique experience that helped me to grow up not only athletically but also personally: I decided to start a new adventure from January 2016, which is going to involve once again my career in this sport and my personal life as a human being. My jersey is changing and I am going to wear the one of the American Luna Chix Team. A new experience, in the United States of America, for the next years.
“I thought about it for a long time and it has been a difficult decision to take after so many years with the Colnago Team, which made me grow, and saw me wearing more than 20 Italian champion jerseys, winning world championships, participating in two Olympic Games and getting so satisfied thanks to cyclo-cross in international competitions.
“Thanks from the bottom of my heart to all of you. Thanks to Ernesto Colnago, who has always believed in me and created, for me, amazing bicycles that I used all over the world, and thanks to my president Erminio Bolgiani, who has been an essential guide behind the scenes. Thanks to my technicians, to Edi, Lukas and Jerry, my team managers, and to my important sponsors. Thanks to all of my today's and yesterday's mates. If it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't be the person that I actually am. Working in a team has been something extraordinary, and it's also thanks to them that I am ready to start and face a new game.”
Bos targets track and Rio Olympics in 2016
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Theo Bos (Dimension Data) has confirmed that he will prioritise the track in 2016, telling television station NOS that he is targeting a place on the Dutch squad for the team sprint at the Olympic Games in Rio.
Silver medallist in the individual sprint at the Athens Olympics in 2004, Bos turned his attention to the road following the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Currently at Dimension Data,
“I’m going for Rio,” Bos told NOS. “I played around with the idea for a while after the National Championships in November. Like every winter, I rode on the track and it felt so good that I thought maybe there’s more in there.”
Bos is likely to race at the Track World Cup in Hong Kong next month, though he is aware that breaking into the Dutch team sprint line-up for Rio will not be straightforward. “It’s realistic, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. But the level is very high, the boys are European champions, so that will be a challenge,” he said.
Entering the second year of his contract with Dimension Data (formerly MTN-Qhuebka), Bos foresaw limited opportunities on the road in 2016 following the arrival of Mark Cavendish as the team’s number one sprinter and Mark Renshaw as his lead-out man. With a place in the Tour de France team thus highly unlikely, Bos has opted to make the Olympics the centrepiece of his season.
“My goal on the road was to ride the Tour de France once, but their arrival ruled that out,” Bos said. “Of course, I think road racing is still a lot of fun, but if I have to choose between the Eneco Tour or the Olympics, then the choice is easy."
Wanty-Groupe Gobert announces 2016 line-up
Wanty-Groupe Gobert announced Monday their 22-rider roster for the upcoming 2016 season. The team also revealed their predominantly blue jersey that they will sport in the peloton next season.
Marco Marcato, 31, and Enrico Gasparotto, 33, once again headline the team’s roster. Despite them being the two older riders on the team, the squad has reduced their average age from 30 to 28.
They have said goodbye to eight riders from the 2015 season but have hired nine new riders including Guillaume Martin, Mark McNally and Kenny Dehaes.
The team will unite for an opening training camp held from January 11-23 in Spain. They will then compete in a series of races including GP la Marseillaise and Etoile de Bessèges, Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, and Tours of Qatar and Oman.
They will also compete in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, once they return to Belgium.
Wanty-Groupe Gobert roster for 2016: Simone Antonini, Frederik Backaert, Jérôme Baugnies, Gaëtan Bille, Dimitri Claeys, Thomas Degand, Kenny Dehaes, Antoine Demoitié, Tom Devriendt, Boris Dron, Enrico Gasparotto, Roy Jans, Marco Marcato, Guillaume Martin, Mark McNally, Marco Minnaard, Danilo Napolitano, Lander Seynaeve, Robin Stenuit, Bjorn Thurau, Kévin Van Melsen, Frederik Veuchelen.
Nippo Vini Fantini reveal 2016 De Rosa team issued bike
Nippo Vini Fantini revealed their 2016 team issue Protos De Rosa bike in a press release on Monday. The bike is orange with white and blue details, matching the team’s official jersey for next season.
The team will debut their new bikes at a team presentation on January 9 in Chieti and they will race on the bikes at the Tour de San Luis held from January 18-24 in Argentina.
De Rosa manager Cristiano De Rosa said in the press release, “We collect very important feedback from the team staff and riders all season, working in a day-by-day development. The riders know very well the bike, and for this reason we will keep going on with Protos, evolved in some details, also in the 2016 season.
“To come back to the Giro d’Italia with our brand in 2015 has been a great emotion, in this second season the team has all it needs to improve performance and prove the high level inside the professional cycling world. Also our company has been working to give team riders the best bike as possible. The new OrangeFluo color, lightened with a white border, has been made to be coordinated as much as possible with the new 2016 official jersey of the team.”
The team press release also gave some additional equipment details, “The bike is a Protos, the top of the range model of the De Rosa brand and is made with a unique carbon body, with the Campagnolo Super Record group, Campagnolo Bora wheels with the Japanese technology of IRC tires, arrived in the cycling world, coming from Motocross sport. The excellence of all the elements continue in the FSA and Vision, in the saddle, made by another top quality sponsor of the team Selle Italia and on pedals Time to complete a Made in Italy look.”
