German rider will be part of Andre Greipel’s support team on the Belgian squad
The Omega Pharma-Lotto team has announced its final signing for 2011, bringing the total of new acquisitions to a staggering 14 riders. HTC Columbia rider Marcel Sieberg is the latest to put pen to paper, moving across from the US ProTour team with top sprinter Andre Greipel, Adam Hansen, Vicente Reynes and Gert Dockx.
He will work closely with those to ensure the best possible leadout train for Greipel, who clocked up the most victories by a pro rider this season with 21 wins, ten more than runner-up Mark Cavendish.
In recent years, the German missed out on the chance to go for Tour de France sprint success as the HTC Columbia team favoured Cavendish; he’ll now have his opportunity, and will rely on Sieberg’s support.
The latter, who is 28 years old and has been a pro for the past five years, has clocked up some good results of his own accord. He’s taken four wins including the 2006 Jef Scherens, and was runner-up in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne one year later.
His 2010 results include third on a stage if the Giro, fifth in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and eighth on the first stage of the Tour of Poland. In particular, the first two results show that he can also take some important wins for the Belgian team if necessary.
The riders all met in Deinze yesterday for the first get-together. That will be of particular importance this year as over half the squad is new, meaning that there will be a lot of introductions to be made and also a considerable amount of briefing, measurements for bike position and fitting for clothes and shoes.
Apart from the HTC Columbia newcomers, the other additions are the Belgians Jurgen Van De Walle, Frederik Willems, Klaas Lodewijck, Sven Vandousselaere, Bart De Clercq and Jens Debusschere, as well as David Boucher, Jussi Veikkanen and Oscar Puyol.
The team had a strong season, due mainly to the performances of Philippe Gilbert. Since moving to the squad, he has developed into one of the world’s top riders and won both Amstel Gold and the Tour of Lombardy this year.