Magner to join UnitedHealthcare but no places for Ballan or ten Dam
Team concentrate on young and US talent for 2016
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling will focus on developing young US talent with Ty Magner their latest recruit for 2016. The team have a full roster for next year, and although not all of their new signings have been made public, team manager Mike Tamayo confirmed that Alessandro Ballan and Laurens ten Dam, who had both been linked with the team, would not be singing with them. Magner, who currently rides for Hincapie Racing, will be joining the team.
"There was a discussion with Laurens there but we've got a full roster now. We will be bringing over Ty Magner and we're focusing on bringing up a lot of young US riders," Tamayo told Cyclingnews.
"Everyone linked us to Ballan and we spoke to him one time. Wilier asked us to talk to him and we had that chat but we're looking to go more American and younger next year."
Ballan is free to return to cycling after serving and 18-month ban for a doping offence but Tamayo ruled out the rider's past as a significant reason for not signing the former Tour of Flanders winner.
"It's not so much about his past so to say but it's more about us trying to look to the future."
Tamayo has already signed Matthew Busche from Trek Factory Racing with Kiel Reijnen moving in the opposite direction.
"Matthew is a big signing for us. It's always exciting to have the US champion coming to the team and now we'll to try and find a way of keeping it."
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According to Tamayo the two transfers were not related to each other, with negotiations between agents and riders taking place at different times.
"They had nothing to do with each other. I was already talking to Matthew back in July when Trek started talking to Kiel after Colorado. They're different riders too. Matthew is more of a GC rider for week-long races and that's something that we've been lacking. Losing Kiel hurts because he's a guy who can win sprints for us from smaller groups, but we've got Marco Canola, who has been solid for us all year, so I'm losing Kiel but it means that I'm just moving Marco into more of a leadership position."
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.