Alexander Wetterhall has said he is looking forward to a season competing with the Endura Racing team, and has set the regaining of his Swedish national time trial title as one of his goals for the months ahead.
The 24 year old was left without a team when the Cervélo Test Team stopped prematurely. He had ridden well as a stagiaire and expected to be given a pro contract for 2011, but the team’s early folding meant that he was stranded. Getting a deal with a team which is planning to expand and compete in many UCI events next season is a relief.
“I was thinking that this [the stagiaire position with Cervélo] was my shot to get into the high level of cycling, and I was disappointed when I got the message about the team’s folding,” he told VeloNation today. “It took long time to get someone else interested, maybe because I was searching at a high level, but one day [former Scottis pro] Brian Smith called me. Endura Racing was interested and they gave me a good offer, told me what they want to do and gave me a Europe race program…that was great!”
The 2010 FBD Insurance Rás champion had ridden well during his trial with Cervélo, placing seventh early on in the time trial at the Tour of Denmark and netting 25th overall. He recently received a strong endorsement on Twitter by Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen, both in terms of his riding ability and his mentality. He sees Wetterhall as a rider for the future.
Endura Racing competed mainly in Britain in 2010, but is ramping up the budget, the line-up and the racing programme for next season. It has made a number of international signings, including Team Milram’s Paul Voss, who won the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya this year, past Under 23 Oceania TT champion Jack Anderson, New Zealand national champion Jack Bauer, Frenchman Alexandre Blain and the Spanish climber Iker Camano. It has pledged a good race lineup for the season ahead and once details are known, Wetterhall can plan ahead.
“We will do a Europe race program with UCI races and I will get more info in the beginning of December,” he said. “As regards goals, I will put a lot of effort into get the Swedish national TT jersey back. I want to do well in stage races….I’ll have more specific goals when I get a "full" race program.”
One event he’d like to perform well in again is the FBD Rás, now renamed the An Post Rás. He is proud to have won this season and described it as one of the highlights of his career thus far. “It’s a hard race, because of the five-man teams and the rough weather,” he said. “We had a good go this year and the racing style suits me. So, if I have good form, it would be good to go back.”
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Stay tuned for the latest blog entry from Alex Wetterhall, which will appear on VeloNation later today.