South African Lill joins Navigators

The Navigators team has improved its climbing power by signing South African Darren Lill to its team for 2007. This year, Lill wore the King of the Mountains jersey at such races as the Tour de Langkawi and the Giro Del Capo. Lill will be the first South African to join the American outfit.

Lill previously rode for teams Barloworld, HSBC, and Microsoft, but was left without a contract at the end of the 2005 season when discussions with a major European team fell through. Too late to find a team for 2006, Lill split his time between racing for Schwinn in his native South Africa and the national team in international events such as the Tour de Langkawi , Tour of Qinghai Lake and the World Championships.

Darren is happy to have signed a contract with Navigators for 2007 and forward to meeting his new team-mates and racing with them in Europe and the US. Navigators was reportedly one of several teams making offers to Lill.