Bobbie Traksel probably thought his move from Vacansoleil to Pegasus was going to be a step up. The Dutch team has been at Professional Continental level for the past two years, but the new Pegasus team had aspirations and ambitions to become Australia’s first ProTour team.
It must have been slightly sobering for the Dutchman to see his old team step up to the top level, while his new one was denied; with a number of illustrious teammates like three-time Tour de France green jersey Robbie McEwen though, he can’t have been too worried about the team having to settle for “ProConti”.
Yesterday though, Traksel heard the news that Pegasus had even been denied the sport’s second division.
“I now have a problem,” he told Omroep Gelderland, with colossal understatement, from his training camp in Calpe, Spain.
Traksel, the winner of last year’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, could be forced to ride for a team in the sport’s third division; it may not be that simple though, as International Cycling Union (UCI) regulations state that the team now has too many riders.
"They’ll probably end up with Continental status,” he conceded, “but the limit is 16 to 18 riders and 25 riders remain [there are now 24 after it was confirmed today that Canadian time trial champion Svein Tuft had joined SpiderTech]. Anyone can volunteer to leave, but you must of course have somewhere to go.
“So I'm looking for a new team, even though I have a contract for two years.”
With some of the team’s riders, including McEwen, having get out clauses in their contracts and potential alternative teams to go to, the team’s roster will likely be lower within a few days but is still likely to be over the UCI limit. Also, having spent 2007 and 2008 on Continental teams, the 29-year-old will not be keen to step back down again.
“Pegasus was a beautiful dream,” he said. “I’m riding around now on a very nice bike [his new Scott team bike]. I’m training hard and waiting to see what is going to happen there.
“I'm open to everything,” he concluded.