The American Team Type 1 – Sanofi is continuing its aim of strengthening the team with the extension of the contracts of some important riders plus the acquisition of some new competitors for the 2012 season.
French competitors Julien El Fares and Remy Cusin are coming on board, as is the promising young Italian Filippo Fortin.
El Fares has been a professional with the Cofidis team for four seasons and has won stages in the Tour of the Mediterranean and Tirreno-Adriatico. He was fourth on a stage of this year’s Tour de France, and Team Type 1 – Sanofi manager Vassili Davidenko believes he will be a strong addition.
“Julien brings a wealth of stage racing experience to us, especially from such a young rider. Two Tours de France, a Vuelta, the Dauphine, Paris-Nice, Romandie, Tirreno-Adriatico where he wore the leader's jersey and won the points classification, Down Under, you name it,” he said. “With Julien we see an opportunity to build on his results and build for the future.”
Compatriot Cusin is also moving across from the Cofidis team, after two years there and two years with the Agritubel squad. He took his biggest career result this season and at 25 years of age, should continue to improve.
“Remy won stage two at the Tour of Denmark this year, and we saw him succeed on what was likely the most difficult day of racing on the hardest course of the year,” Davidenko said. “He's a tremendously talented and exceptionally promising addition to Team Type 1 - SANOFI, and his experience at Grand Tours and one-day classics is very exciting for us.
“We have great ambitions for wider European success next year, and Remy is going to help us achieve our dreams.”
As for Fortin, he is a talented young Italian rider and competed this season with the Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli U23 squad. In recent weeks he has been riding as a stagiaire with Professional Continental team Androni Giocattoli - CIPI.
"Filippo won eight races in 2011, and has the kind of fast finish that really stands out among riders,” said Davidenko. “We see a talented young rider with great potential in Filippo, and we are certain he will rise to the podium with Team Type 1 - SANOFI in 2012.”
Six riders confirmed as continuing:
With more announcements to come of those remaining in place plus others coming on board, the Atlanta squad has confirmed that six riders have extended with the team. The most prominent of these are the Russian rider Aleksandr Efimkin plus the Swiss competitor Rubens Bertogliati.
Efimkin won the Presidential Tour of Turkey and Davidenko stresses the importance of his presence. “Aleks had his best result ever, and revitalized his career this season. He has shown himself to be highly motivated and extremely intelligent, and possessed with an ability to calculate every variable in a race.
“He's highly appreciative of the teamwork needed to win a stage race and never underestimates the capabilities of his competition anywhere in the world,” Davidenko said.
He’s similarly upbeat about double Swiss time trial champion and past Tour de France stage winner Bertogliati, who helped Efimkin to his win. “Rubens Bertogliati was our backbone of European experience this year, and with his leadership and strength, particularly at the Tour of Turkey where he helped to take and defend Aleksandr Efimkin's leader's jersey, we are pleased to announce his continued presence on Team Type 1 – Sanofi,” he said.
The four other signings are the Americans Kiel Reijnen and Will Dugan, plus the Dutchman Martijn Verschoor and Javier Megias. The latter two both have Type 1 diabetes and one of the team’s aims is to show that they plus the other three riders with the condition can compete in a tough endurance sport despite the disease. Verschoor underlined this when he won stage two of the Tour de Beauce, and Megias has been riding well this season.
Reijnen appears to be back on track after a long-running illness and is aiming for a strong 2011. Dugan also wants to step up a level in 2012, and was third in the general classification of the Tour of Korea
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Team Type 1 - SANOFI newly signed riders for 2012
Remy Cusin - FRA
Julien El Fares - FRA
Filippo Fortin - ITA
Returning riders:
Aleksandr Efimkin - RUS
Rubens Bertogliati – SUI
Will Dugan - USA
Kiel Reijnen - USA
Martijn Verschoor* - NED
Javier Megias* - ESP
* riders with Type 1 diabetes