BKCP-Power Plus owners would run two separate teams
Image 1 of 3
Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea Cycling Team) on his way to third place(Image credit: www.ispaphoto.com)
Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) said he didn't have good legs, but that didn't stop him from crushing the field.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Stybar poses for photographs at the Telenet-Fidea team presentation(Image credit: Stephen Farrand)
The owners of Niels Albert’s BKCP-Power Plus team have expressed their interest in buying the Telenet-Fidea squad from Hans van Kasteren. Brothers Christophe and Philip Roodhooft wish to purchase the team and maintain it as a separate entity from BKCP-Power Plus.
“We don’t want a team like that to disappear from the cyclo-cross landscape,” Chrstiophe Roodhoft told HLN.be. Telenet-Fidea manager Hans van Kasteren is to step down at the end of the season, while the team’s star commodity Zdeněk Stybar has been heavily linked with a move to Quick Step.
Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere has also been rumoured to be considering purchasing the Telenet-Fidea squad in a bid to land Stybar. However, if the Roodhooft brothers are to purchase Telenet-Fidea, it will be without Stybar, while Niels Albert will remain at BKCP-Power Plus.
“Niels Albert will stay as leader of BKCP-Power Plus,” Roodhooft said. “Telenet-Fidea would be extended further around Tom Meeusen and Bart Wellens, with Danny De Bie as director.”
Hans van Kasteren confirmed that he has been in negotiations with the Roodhooft brothers but explained that he will not make a decision on the future of Telenet-Fidea until after this weekend’s world championships.
“I haven’t worked on the follow-up [to the negotiations],” van Kasteren said. “That will not be until early February at least, until after the Worlds. My riders always take priority."
“With respect to the team management, there are twenty possible scenarios but for the purchase of the team, so far the Roodhooft brothers are the only official candidates. I hear now that Patrick Lefevere might be interested, but again, these are matters for early February.”
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
