Lefevere says Poels and Acevedo are coming to Omega Pharma-QuickStep

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Omega Pharma-QuickStep's Patrick Lefevere has reached agreements with Vacansoleil-DCM’s Wout Poels and Jamis-Hagens Berman’s Janier Acevedo for 2014.

“I have a verbal agreement with both of them. We virtually shacked hands yesterday so I hope they keep their word,” the Belgian manager told VRT television show De Zevende Dag.

Wout Poels is 25 years old and has been part of Vacansoleil-DCM since the team started five years ago. Before that the rider from the south of Holland was part of the Continental team led by Vacansoleil-DCM manager Daan Luijckx. Poels won a stage in this year’s Tour de l’Ain and also won stages there in 2010 and 2011. He has agreed to a one-year deal

“Wout Poels will ride classics like Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège for us. We also need some extra support in races like Tirreno-Adriatico and Vuelta al País Vasco where he performed well this year, “ Lefevere said. Poels was 9th in the Basque Country and 10th in Italy.

Janier Acevedo is one of the most prolific climbers on the American scene. The Colombian  is currently part of the US-based Continental team Jamis-Hagens Berman and leads the UCI America Tour rankings. “Acevedo will come to us to work for Rigoberto Urán. He is even from the same village in Colombia,” Lefevere said.

The 27-year-old Acevedo won stage 2 in this year’s Tour of California and finished third in the overall classification. He repeated this GC performance at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. Last week in Colorado Acevedo finished fourth in the USA Pro Challenge. He also was victorious in the fourth stage to Beaver Creek.

In Colorado Acevedo said he was happy at Jamis-Hagens Berman and would like to stay. Team manager Seba Alexandre admitted to Cyclingnews there was interest in Acevedo from WorldTour teams. "We don't know his future," Alexandre said. "But for sure I can say that he is very happy, and if not moving to any WorldTour team he will be free to ride with us. We are going to keep doing these kind of races on this calendar, and he's going to show what kind of rider he is."

Lefevere elaborated in a Belgian radio show later today that the now has room for one more rider for 2014. “That rider needs to be able to do all sorts of races. Whether it’ll be a Belgian? Not necessarily. I know Thomas de Gendt is interested. I don’t know about Jan Bakelants. I really hope I make the right decision,” he concluded.