Three more riders confirmed for Luxembourg team
Piece by piece, the 25-rider line-up of the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project is being revealed. Nearly every day this week the team has announced a few more names, the latest being Anders Lund, Martin Mortensen and Tom Stamsnijder.
The brand-new team has now confirmed a total of 24 riders and public opinion is that they are saving the best for last.
"Anders Lund is a great rider who just keeps improving," said manager Kim Andersen in a team statement. "Martin is a good strong rider in the Classics and has made a lot of progress this past season. He is only 25 and is already a good rider with a lot of
room for growth. Tom loves the Classics and I think he can develop into a great Classics rider."
The team has been built around brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, with many of their former Saxo Bank teammates transferring with them. The widely-held and strongly hinted belief is that quadruple world champion Fabian Cancellara
is among those transferring from Saxo Bank. The Swiss rider bought out his contract at the Danish team months ago, but has refused to name his new team.
"At Saxo Bank, we had a great time and I want to continue with that group of people," is all he has said.
The full line-up was included in the application sent to the Union Cycliste International (UCI) by team managers Bryan Nygaard and Kim Andersen, also former Saxo Bank employees.
Due to the strength of the line-up, the Luxembourg team was ranked as the number-one team in the world, based on the race results of the top 15 riders in the last two seasons.
"Every bike rider wants to do the Tour and to be strong there, myself included,” said new signing Anders Lund. "But it is going to be an extremely strong team next year and therefore really difficult to be selected for the
Tour squad."
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