More strong backup riders have been confirmed for the Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara, with four new signings being announced for the planned Trek WorldTour team.
Former US national champion Matt Busche is one of those coming on board, the 28 year old moving across after a solid season which saw him net fourth in the Gran Premio Città di Camaiore, fifth overall in the Tour of Utah and sixth overall in the Tour of California. The 28 year old raced with Team RadioShack in 2010 and since then has been part of the setup, accompanying several others when they moved across to the Luxembourg-based RadioShack Leopard squad in 2012.
“I'm very happy to be staying with Trek,” said Busche, who is from Wauwatosa, just 100 kilometres from Trek’s Waterloo headquarters. “I've been riding Trek since turning pro in 2010 and the decision to stay was pretty easy. They have helped me improve a lot as a cyclist in four years and I'm confident that this is a good team for me to progress to the next level.”
Also staying on board is the Basque rider Haimar Zubeldia, a 36 year old who has four top ten finishes in the Tour de France to his credit.
He has been using Trek bikes since he moved to Astana prior to the 2009 season and, having competed with RadioShack and RadioShack Leopard since then, is continuing with many familiar faces next year.
“It shows a lot to me that Trek has the confidence to sign me to the new team,” he said. “I have a lot of experience to pass on and am excited to compete again.”
The third rider moving across from the current RadioShack Leopard setup is Laurent Didier, who joined the team earlier this year. He won the mountains classification in the Tour de Haut Var and finished second in the Luxembourg national time trial championships, one year after taking the road race title. The 29 year old is the fourth confirmed rider from that country to join the team, with the Schleck brothers and Bob Jungels having already been confirmed.
“I'm happy to be reunited with such a great group of riders and friends,” he said. “I'm comfortable as a domestique and am ready to work for this team.”
The fourth rider moving across from the current setup is the Croatian national champion Robert Kišerlovski. The 27 year old has a number of strong results in his palmares, including tenth overall in the 2010 Giro d’Italia plus victory in that season’s Giro dell’Appennino, as well as top ten finishes last year in Flèche Wallonne, the Volta a Catalunya and Paris-Nice.
“The team had a lot of confidence in me from the beginning and this past season showed me that I made the right choice to further with this group of riders,” he said.
“Most of them move to Trek Factory Racing in 2014, which makes me happy. This is a professional team and most of all a group I consider friends.”
Trek Factory Racing General Manager Luca Guercilena sees the value in keeping many of the riders from the existing team unit together. “These four riders form a strong group of guys that have more than just one card to play: they can ride for their own result, but they can also ride in support of a leader,” he said.
The team is likely to be finalised in the coming weeks.