Skil-Shimano releases four riders
Rooijakkers, Goesinnen, Long and Wilmann gone
Skil-Shimano is cleaning house for the coming season, and has announced four riders who will no longer be with the team for 2011.
Peter Rooijakkers, Floris Goesinnen and Jin Long have not been offered new contracts, while the team mutually agreed with Frederik Wilmann to terminate the last year of his two-year contract.
The Dutch team had considered applying for ProTour status in 2011, but will remain a Professional Continental team.
Rooijakkers, 30, has been with the team since 2006. He started the Tour de France in 2009 but had to abandon after suffering a broken arm in a crash during the fourth stage team time trial.
Goesinnen, 27, has also been with the team since 2006, as has Jin Long
Wilmann's story is different, the Norwegian having only joined the team this year on a two-year contract, after riding for Continental Norwegian teams since 2005. The team said it decided “in close consultation” with him to terminate the contract.
Wilmann indicated that it was his decision to leave, as he felt he was not developing at the team, and that he ought to be riding the Grand Tours at this point in his career.
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Team manager Ivan Spekenbrink told Procycling.no, “We feel that we did not have the 100 percent commitment” from the rider. “We increasingly had the feeling that further development would become difficult. He was not 100 percent behind the team's philosophy and was not dedicated enough in his work."