Ambitious Australian team taking on young talent as well as experienced professionals
One of Australia’s up and coming young riders is the latest signing for the Australian Pegasus Racing team. Michael Freiberg recently returned from the Commonwealth Games with a gold medal from the team pursuit and a silver in the track race, and attracted the attention of Chris White’s team.
“They contacted me the day I arrived home," the 20 year old told Perth Now. He said the medals, “helped a little bit, but I also rode for their domestic team this year, the Virgin Blue RBS Morgans, so they've got a bit of a pathway there at the moment.”
The team is being based on the existing Fly V Australia team, which has been competing at the Continental level. That squad will continue, and remains intent in riding many US races, but many of its riders are moving across to the bigger squad.
A number of big names have been signed from elsewhere, including Robbie McEwen (Katusha), a twelve-time Tour de France stage winner and triple Maillot Vert, Christian Knees (Milram), Daryl Impey (RadioShack), Serguei Klimov (Team Katusha), and the Garmin Transitions trio of Svein Tuft, Robbie Hunter and Trent Lowe.
The team recently applied for a ProTeam (ProTour) licence but will miss out this time round as other teams have more top-ranked riders. However White has said that he is determined to secure a ProTeam licence for 2012, and wants to ride the Tour de France as soon as possible.
Freiberg wants to get to the top races, and feels Pegasus Racing is a good way to go about realising that goal. “It's the first steps on the long road to the top,” he said. “We'll be racing the US next year, then the next step is Europe, and from there it will be the Spring Classics and all the big tours Tour de France, Giro d'Italia. That's really where I want to be.”
He is currently getting ready for this month's Perth International Track Cycling GP and January's national championships. After that, the former Australian junior will head to Colorado in March. The team’s programme for 2011 is not yet clear but more about that, plus the title sponsor, will be revealed in time.