Luxembourg team to be called Team Leopard

After three successful seasons with Saxo Bank Jakob Fuglsang is looking forward to riding for his new team in 2011. The Dane recently attended the team’s inaugural training camp in Switzerland where staff and riders had the chance spend several days together.

Fuglsang told Cyclingnews that The Luxembourg Cycling Project will race under the Team Leopard name in 2011, with the brand on the centre of the team’s jersey.

Fuglsang had a sneak preview on the jersey kit at a recent training camp in Switzerland and was impressed with the design.

"I saw a picture of what it could look like. You can expect something cool and simple, a classic look. From what we saw it has the Leopard logo on it and it’s well done. Leopard is the name on the centre of the jersey. It’s called Team Leopard. That’s what it’s going to be to begin with, and that’s how it looks for the moment,” Fuglsang told Cyclingnews.

Leopard refers to the management company run by Bryan Nygaard, who has assembled the team. The team, which has signed both Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara, have been awarded a ProTeam license for four years and are ranked as the number one squad in the world.

Their recent training camp was the first opportunity for all of the riders to meet each other and despite the lion-share signing from Saxo Bank, Fuglsang believes the entire team gelled.

"It was new for all of us. The guys from Saxo, we know each other but we know most of the guys from other teams and it’s really good atmosphere with everyone together. The managers have really brought in some nice guys both in terms of riders and staff. They’ve worked really hard on making that happen and getting the mix right,” he told Cyclingnews.

"After just the first night it was like we’d been on the same team for years.”

Fuglsang rode for Bjarne Riis’s team for three years and experienced some of the most unique training camps in cycling, with survival camps often acting as a team bonding device.

"Bjarne’s old camps were different. It was cool with the survival elements but I can also say that if you’ve been a rider in his team for six years you can get pretty tired of survival camp. This was something different but we still had a time in the snow and some really good time to get to know each other.”

"We had some meetings, a bike and clothing fittings. We also had our first meetings with our team managers so there was a lot to do for next year. We had free time too so we could snowboard too. It was so well organised and everyone got the best out of it.”