African rider targeting European success as he looks to make a mark on the cycling world
As previously reported by VeloNation, GreenEdge has signed Daniel Teklehaimanot to the team and, today, has finally made formal the announcement. The Eritrean joins the 2012 World Tour aspirants after dividing his time the past few seasons between the UCI World Cycling Training centre in Switzerland and its African Continental Centre in South Africa.
Teklehaimanot joins the Australian team on a two year deal on the back of a number of successful results, which include winning the road race and time trial in the African Championships last year and finishing sixth overall in the 2009 Tour de I’Avenir.
“Daniel has spent the majority of the past few seasons juggling racing commitments between Europe and Africa so it will take him a little while to adjust to professional European racing,” said GreenEdge general manager Shayne Bannan. “However, what we do know is he’s a big talent who has shown a real desire for success and we intend on giving him all the support necessary to fulfil his potential.”
The steady progression and approach to the Eritrean’s development is what made him overlook five other offers and convinced him to sign for GreenEdge, according to his mentor and director of the African Continental Centre, Jean-Pierre van Zyl.
The former international track rider spoke about the matter to VeloNation earlier this month. “Some of the offers were from French teams and his French is not so good. [With GreenEdge] he will be based very close to the UCI World Training Centre where he is used to being based and he is more suited to that climate. We were looking for the opportunity for him to mature. We really respect Shayne Bannan’s approach to development and the GreenEdge structure.”
The Australian team applying for a World Tour licence has so far announced a mixture of experienced riders and talented youngsters to the team. More announcements are expected in coming days, some possibly from HTC-Highroad members who are currently honouring a clause in their contract which states they may not make public their signing to a new team before September 1st.