Rabobank adds Moerenhout and Gesink

Koos Moerenhout will return to the Rabobank Cycling Team next season, and will sign a one year contract with the Dutch squad. Moerenhout turned pro with Rabobank in 1996 and rode for four years with them before switching to Farm Frites in 2000, which eventually became Davitamon-Lotto in 2005. In 2006, he rode for Phonak. He is the third former Rabobank rider to rejoin the team for next season after Leon van Bon and Max van Heeswijk.

Rabobank also announced that 20 year-old Robert Gesink (Rabobank Continental) will be making the step up to the ProTeam in 2007. Gesink already signed a two year deal with Rabobank Continental in June, but team manager Theo de Rooij decided that he was good enough to move up. "Robert is an extraordinary talent," said De Rooij. "We have to be very careful with him. A Dutch climber, who can be as fast as the best: we have to cherish him. His development is going so fast, time has come for him to steadily learn the trade."

In 2002 and 2004 Gesink was Dutch national junior champion in the individual time trial. At the junior World Championships of Verona 2004 he finished eighth in the individual time trial and sixth in the road race. This season, Gesink won the general classifications of both Settimana Ciclista Lombarda and Circuito Montañes. In the Tour de l'Avenir he came second.

With Moerenhout and Gesink, the Rabobank ProTeam now numbers 27 riders: Leon van Bon, Michael Boogerd, Jan Boven, Thomas Dekker, Theo Eltink, Rick Flens, Robert Gesink, Bram de Groot, Max van Heeswijk, Sebastian Langeveld, Gerben Löwik, Marc de Maar, Koos Moerenhout, Joost Posthuma, Kai Reus, Thorwald Veneberg and Pieter Weening (all Ned), Graeme Brown, Mathew Hayman and William Walker (all Aus), Juan Antonio Flecha, Oscar Freire and Pedro Horrillo (all Spa), Mauricio Ardila (Col), Denis Menchov (Rus), Grischa Niermann (Ger) and Michael Rasmussen (Den).