With a total of 16 wins thus far this season, Andre Greipel is currently the rider with the most professional victores in 2010. He will finally get the chance to ride the Tour de France in 2011 when he leads the Omega Pharma Lotto squad in the sprints there.
Tension with current HTC Columbia team-mate Mark Cavendish plus the team’s decision to bank all their chips on the Manxman in the gallops mean that he has been passed over for selection for that race. As a result, it wasn’t much of a surprise that he opted to leave.
The Belgian Omega Pharma Lotto squad was long rumoured to be interested in him. It’s generally found itself under pressure to get wins early in the season and rather than putting extra stress on Classic riders like Philippe Gilbert, the team has decided to invest in a top sprinter. That should ensure it clocks up some early victories, and will hopefully create a snowball effect in terms of wins by other riders.
Marc Frederix, marketing director of Lotto, the team’s co-sponsor, believes that this signing perfectly complements the team. “We have the best day-old Belgian rider with Gilbert, the best Belgian rider around with [Jurgen] Van den Broeck and now a winner in the sprint,” he said, according to Sporza.
Van den Broeck finished a superb fifth in the Tour this year, improving ten places from his 2009 placing, and ensured that the team’s race was a success. He’ll aim to improve on that next year, while the team will hope to clock up some stage wins and perhaps fight for the Maillot Vert of best sprinter.
The signing will pitch Greipel and Cavendish in a head-to-head against each other, finally enabling them to cross swords and see who is the quickest. While most would point to Cavendish’s dominance as proof that he should come out on top, Greipel is certainly no slouch. He won four stages plus the points jersey in last year’s Vuelta a España, and picked up a stage win in this year’s Giro, despite being ill for much of the race.
The 28 year old has also sped to a host of other triumphs this season, including two stages in last week’s Tour of Poland, three stages plus the overall in the Tour Down Under, five in the Tour of Turkey, two in the Tour of Austria and one each in the Volta ao Algarve and the Vuelta a Mallorca.
Team CEO Mark Coucke is enthusiastic about getting him on board, and said that the discussions went on for quite some time.
“Manager Geert Coeman and Marc Sergeant have long spoken with Greipel,” he told De Morgen. “They told him the priorities of the team and explained the philosophy of our sponsors. He is very excited to come and get started.”
He said that he believed Greipel, Gilbert and Van Den Broeck would compliment each other perfectly, and that each would take the pressure of the others. That co-operation aside, it will also be important for the German rider to have a strong leadout train, such as the one he enjoys at HTC Columbia. As a result, the team is shopping around, reinforcing its bank of quick riders.
“We are still looking for two or three additional riders,” explained Coucke. “Preferably tough guys, that might be useful in a train, but just as well in a team time trial or echelon.”