Team Saxo Bank signed 20 year-old Jonathan Bellis to race as a neo-pro. The British racer is primarily known from racing the track, on which he has won the World Championship and the European Championship as well as World Cup medals. He also won bronze at the U23 World Championships in 2007 in Stuttgart, Germany.
Bellis raced with the team at the Tour of Britain earlier this month and also trained with the Danish squad last winter.
"I've been with the team at two separate occasions now and I'm looking forward to really becoming a part of it all," said Bellis according to teamcsc-saxobank.com.
"I'm very excited to see how far I can take it on the roads and I know I couldn't find a better place to learn. The team has really supported me throughout this season and I'm very happy that they've maintained interest in me although I've had to focus a lot on the track. Now I'll look forward to testing myself on the roads knowing that I'm part of a fantastic team."
"Jonathan has been of interest to us for quite a while now and there's never been any doubt that he was the right kind of rider for us after testing him at the training camp," said Team Director Bjarne Riis.
"These days there are a lot of talented young riders coming from the tracks and both the Danish and the British program have hatched some seriously interesting riders. Now we've managed to secure ourselves one of the best and it'll be interesting to see Jonathan unfold his talent on the roads. In spite of his main focus being on the track he's already demonstrated his skills on the road as well and we're looking forward to having him with us."
