The continental side, Team Leopard-Trek announces its final roster for the 2012 season
The final roster for the continental side, Team Leopard-Trek was announced earlier during the press conference at the Garage Losch in Luxembourg.
A total number of 12 members to represent the side include 11 riders and one triathlete, Dirk Bockel.
The continental crew will work as a development squad for the WorldTour side, Team RadioShack-Nissan.
Flavio Becca briefed that polishing the Luxembourg cyclists has always been his goal and also mentioned that the top performers will be promoted to ride at the top most level of the sport.
He said, "With this young team we are able to structurally search for talent and provide experience and training to young and promising athletes, not only from Luxembourg but also from other countries".
The continental side will work hand in hand with the existing Bontrager-Livestrong team. Johan Bruyneel , General Manager for the World Tour side, Team RadioShack-Nissan, revealed that the idea of forming the team came during the merger of RadioShack and Nissan.
He cited, "We were convinced that the creation of a development team on the continental level was the ideal way to search for talented young riders and coach them so that one day maybe they can be part of the ProTeam".
The total number of twelve cyclists to represent the continental team comprises five Luxembourg cyclists, Bob Jungels, Alex Kirsch, Joel Zangerle, Pit Schlechter, and Dirk Bockel.
Other riders to make it through to the final roster for the Leopard-Trek Continental roster are Giorgio Brambilla, Eugenio Alafaci from Italy and Alexandr Pliuschin from Moldova.
Spanish cyclist Jesus Ezquerra, Oliver Hofstetter from Switzerland, Julian Kern of Germany and Fabio Silvestre from Poland will also ride for the team in the season ahead.
Adriano Baffi, the team’s Director, is motivated about the fact that all the top players have been included in the side.
Maximum numbers of riders in the team are still under the age of 23 which is a clear indication that the management is looking at a longer prospect.
It will be interesting to see how the newly formed team performs in the coming season, as the top performers in the team will be given the opportunity to ride at the World Tour side, Team RadioShack-Nissan.
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