Both teams chasing world number one slots
Three days into the New Year and with the first races fast approaching, the Garmin-Cervélo team has announced the complete line-up for its Elite teams for 2011. While the composition of the men’s team was largely known for some time, today’s news confirms that there will be ten riders on the women’s team, and lists their identities.
The squad will be led by world time trial champion Emma Pooley, who comes across from last year’s Cervélo Test Team. She will be joined by 2010 team-mates Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain), Sharon Laws (Great Britain), Carla Ryan (Australia), Iris Slappendel (Netherlands), as well as 2009 world champion road race and time trial medallist Noemi Cantele (Italy), Jessie Daams (Belgium), Lucy Martin (Great Britain), Alex Rhodes (Australia) and Trine Schmidt (Denmark).
The directeur sportif of the squad will be named at a later date.
The men’s team is also headed by a world champion, namely road race title-holder Thor Hushovd. He, Heinrich Haussler, Brett Lancaster (both Australia), Andreas Klier (Germany), Gabriel Rasch (Norway), Roger Hammond and Daniel Lloyd (both Great Britain) are also moving across from Cervélo, while Christophe Le Mevel (France), Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium), Andrew Talansky (USA) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania) are inbound from elsewhere.
A core of 18 riders remain from the 2010 men’s team: six are Americans, namely Christian Vande Velde, Tyler Farrar, Dave Zabriskie, Tom Danielson, Tom Peterson and Peter Stetina. There are four Australians – Jack Bobridge, Cameron Meyer, Travis Meyer and Matt Wilson – the two Dutch riders Michel Kreder and Martijn Maaskant, plus Julian Dean (New Zealand), Murilo Fischer (Brazil), Ryder Hesjedal (Canada), Dan Martin (Ireland), David Millar (Great Britain) and Johan Van Summeren (Belgium). All are once again on board and raring to go.
In all, there’s plenty of firepower on the team, ranging from Tour top-ten finishers Vande Velde and Hesjedal, sprint and Classics specialists Hushovd, Farrar and Haussler, to up and coming young riders such as Dan Martin, Jack Bobridge and Cameron Meyer.
Big target:
It’s by far the strongest lineup Garmin has ever put forward, and as a result CEO Jonathan Vaughters has already said the team aims to chase the world number one slot.
It’s also the first time that there will be women racing for the team, and again he is anticipating big things.
“We’re incredibly excited about 2011. Our men’s roster is our strongest yet and we have what we think could be the strongest women’s team in the world,” he stated. “For the men, we have one of the strongest lead out trains in the peloton along with one of the strongest Classics line-ups. The women’s squad brings a wealth of experience and honors and we are incredibly excited to see what they do on the road this year.
“We have the opportunity and the objective to become the number one ranked team – men and women – by the year’s end, and to do it with the same ethical code we started out with. Whatever happens, we’ll give our fans and our sponsors many reasons to cheer in 2011.”
The ethical code he referred to is the anti-doping principles and program implemented since the team’s beginning. That’s been a fundamental part of the team’s stated philosophy, and Vaughters pledges it will continue to be the case.
Another emphasis has been on developing young riders and to that effect, the team will have a Continental and junior team in 2011. Details of both will be released in the next few weeks. The first training camp will be held shortly in Calpe, Spain, and the media day will be on January 28th at the team’s European base of Girona. Before then, several of the team’s riders will line out in the Santos Tour Down Under, aiming to get the winning push underway early on.
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2011 Roster: Team Garmin-Cervélo
Men
Jack Bobridge (AUS)
Tom Danielson (USA)
Julian Dean (NZ)
Tyler Farrar (USA)
Murilo Fischer (BRA)
Roger Hammond (GB)
Heinrich Hausler (AUS)
Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)
Thor Hushovd (NOR)
Andreas Klier (GER)
Michel Kreder (NED)
Brett Lancaster (AUS)
Christophe Le Mével (FRA)
Daniel Lloyd (GB)
Martijn Maaskant (NED)
Dan Martin (IRL)
Cameron Meyer (AUS)
Travis Meyer (AUS)
David Millar (GB)
Ramunas Navardauskas (LT)
Tom Peterson (USA)
Gabriel Rasch (NOR)
Peter Stetina (USA)
Andrew Talansky (USA)
Christian VandeVelde (USA)
Sep Vanmarcke (BEL)
Johan Van Summeren (BEL)
Matt Wilson (AUS)
David Zabriskie (USA)
Women
Lizzie Armitstead (GB)
Noemi Cantele (ITA)
Jessie Daams (BEL)
Sharon Laws (GB)
Lucy Martin (GB)
Emma Pooley (GB)
Alex Rhodes (AUS)
Carla Ryan (AUS)
Trine Schmidt (DK)
Iris Slappendel (NED)