Europcar is hiring Rafaâ Chtioui who hails from Tunisia in Africa. Chtioui is not new to European racing, though, coming across from Acqua e Sapone. He spent the last two years with the Italian outfit at the Professional Continental level.
Chtioui has been under observation for some time. "He is a rider with a future," said the team's director, Jean-René Bernaudeau, according to cyclismactu.net. "I have known him for a long time." Bernaudeau's riders may remember him even more. "He gave us some leg pain in the Tour du Gabon."
Chtioui has also raced some high-level European events. "He was brilliant in the 4 Jours de Dunkerque last year." In 2010, he had a third place, a fourth place and a fifth place in a stage and ended the race in 12th overall. This year he was less lucky. "In 2011 he fractured his clavicle. He is coming to us to relaunch [his career]," said Bernaudeau.
The team is confident that Chtioui can find back to his old form. "We are happy that we hired him. It won't be our last recruit." The team has previously hired Björn Thurau, Angelo Tulik and Davide Malacarne.
One of his biggest successes came in 2007, when he won stage five of the Tour de l'Avenir, the 24-km Sassay time trial. He beat Adriano Malori, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Tony Martin on that occasion. Chtioui was 24th in the final overall classification.
He won the silver medal in the junior World Championships road race and has won several gold medals in various Arabic Championships. Last year, he became the Tunisian Champion. Also last year he finished Paris-Roubaix (54th out of 74 finishers).
The Tour of Belgium is good to him, where he had several top ten placings in the past two years.