Having denied on his Twitter account on September 25th the rumours that Johan Bruyneel might be selling him to another team, the Slovenian rider Janez Brajkovic is now reported as moving to the Astana squad for 2012.
Brajkovic, who rode for Astana in 2008 and 2009 and who then transferred across with Bruyneel and others to the new RadioShack squad, looks to be reaching the end of a seven-year period working with the Belgian. The latter is involved in the unexpected winding up of the Team Radioshack ProTeam licence, plus the transfer of that sponsor plus Nissan to the current Leopard Trek setup.
Due to the number of professionals contracted to the Leopard outfit for 2012, there is only a limited number of places for incoming riders.
The French cycling federation’s website today suggested that the Astana signing is a done deal. The rider was previously reported as having been in negotiations with the Kazakh squad plus two unnamed French teams.
The rider is seen as a potential Grand Tour contender, particularly after he beat Alberto Contador to win the Critérium du Dauphiné last year. He went to the Tour de France this season as one of the four leaders but crashed out of the race.
He had a chance to lead the team in the Vuelta but performed below his usual level. Media reports afterwards quoted him as saying that Bruyneel had asked him to lose weight, with the rider saying he started the Vuelta two kilos under his usual racing mass, and that he suffered as a result. He was only 22nd overall there.
Brajkovic has not commented on the issue in recent days. His September 25th message appeared to imply that he’d be moving across with Bruyneel to the Leopard-Trek formation, which is expected to be called Radioshack-Nissan or Radioshack-Trek in 2012.
“JB never tried to sell me elsewhere, he'd never do that,” he wrote then. “He is a great and honest man who always tried to help.”