Belgian cobble specialist looks set to be bound for Russian team at the end of the year
After four years at OmegaPharma-Lotto, classics specialist Leif Hoste looks set to join the Katusha Team for 2011. The 33-year-old Belgian is keen to make the move, but has not actually signed for the Russian team yet.
“The deal is about 91% there,” Hoste told Sporza.
Katusha sports director Bart Leysen confitmed to Sporza that negotiations were under way between Hoste and the team. “There has indeed been a conversation,” he said, “but nothing concrete has been settled.”
Hoste returned to his current team in 2007, which was called Predictor-Lotto at the time, after spending two years at the American Discovery Channel team; previously, he had spent two years at the Lotto-Domo team.
OmegaPharma-Lotto has found itself second best to big Belgian rival Quick Step in the cobbled classics that Hoste specialises in, with the team’s most high profile results this season coming from Philippe Gilbert in the Ardennes and Jurgen Van Den Broeck in the tour de France; a new team could give Hoste a fresh challenge.
“I have enjoyed myself at Lotto,” said Hoste, “but switching to Katusha will be a new challenge; a chance to breathe some new air. The contract is there but not yet, it’s not possible until September.”
As a three-time second place finisher in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (2004, 2006 and 2007), Hoste could form a formidable partnership with Filippo Pozzato at Katusha. The Italian champion has mounted an almost solo challenge in the cobbled classics, so an alliance with Hoste would be good for both riders.
“It was Jef Braeckevelt [another Katusha sports director] who contacted me,” Hoste explained. “I could stay where I am, but what he presented looked really nice; both financial and sporting.”