As the end of the year approaches, the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project is continuing to build towards its first season and what it expects will be an impressive debut in the sport. The strength of its line-up marks it out as a team which could dominate pro cycling, and the riders will soon meet to plan things with the new management.
Tour de France runner up Andy Schleck, his brother Frank, up-and-coming Grand Tour contender Jakob Fuglsang and the rest of the team will have their first training camp in December, meeting on the sixth of the month in the Swiss Alps.
The camp will last a week and will enable the riders to build condition, get to know each other as individuals and as a unit, lay out racing plans and training programmes for 2011 and do any necessary fitting sessions for bikes and clothing.
General manager Brian Nygaard indicated today that the camp will be on bikes rather than being run on a similar basis to the survival camps run by CSC/Saxo Bank for many years. Depending on snow, this could in theory require the riders to use mountain bikes.
In all, 20 riders have been confirmed this far. Aside from the three mentioned above, the confirmed team also comprises Dominic Klemme, Jens Voigt, Stuart O’Grady and Anders Lund, who are also coming across from Saxo Bank. Also on board are Daniele Bennati, Will Clarke, Stefan Denifl, Brice Feillu, Linus Gerdemann, Maxime Monfort, Giacomo Nizzolo, Bruno Pires, Davide Viganò, Fabian Wegmann, Wouter Weylandt, Tom Stamsnijder and Martin Mortensen.
World time trial champion Fabian Cancellara is also expected to accompany the Schlecks from Saxo Bank. This has yet to be confirmed by the team, as are the identities of the main sponsors. As mentioned on VeloNation yesterday, two rumoured backers were named over the weekend: the Belgian telecommunications company Belgacom, and the Danish wireless headset manufacturer GN Netcom/Jabra.