“After a period of orientation, conversating and good thinking I have made up my mind and agreed to stay at Skil-Shimano for another year!,” the 27-year-old tweeted, in his descriptive, if not perfect, English.
Van Hummel has been with the Dutch Professional Continental team since 2006. He has two victories to his name this season, having won stages in both the Tour de Picardie and the Tour of Belgium.
In 2009, he had five wins, but was best known for his performance in the Tour de France. He was the first to start in the opening time trial and brought in the second-slowest time. After the sixth stage he was last in the overall classification and his struggles to hang on during the mountain stages brought him enormous popularity. A crash in the 17th stage finally forced him out of the race.
The Skil-Shimano team intends to remain Pro Continental in 2011, although it had considered applying for ProTour status. It rode both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in 2009, but was not invited to any of the grand tours this year.
Skil-Shimano has so far signed five new riders for the 2011 season, three Germans and two French: Roger Kluge and Johannes Fröhlinger are coming over from Milram, and Marcel Kittel from the Thüringer Energie Team. French riders Thomas Bonnin and Thomas Damuseau will both be making their professional debut with the team.
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