Pro Continental team Vacansoleil has shown some interest in riding the Tour of California this May, according to Wielermagazine.com. The Dutch team recently got a double dose of bad news in the form of non-invitations to start in both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, sandwiched in between being shunned for the Walloon classics double of la Flèche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Earlier this year the team said they favored doing the Italian and French Grand Tours in 2010 over the Vuelta a Espana, not only because of the status of the events, but the fact that both races took their start at home in The Netherlands.
Now the prospect of heading to the United States for its biggest event, the Tour of California, is thought of as a possible alternative. This year’s race already has some big names attached to the start list including RadioShack’s seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish and BMC Racing’s George Hincapie. The question remains as to whether organizers can make room for the Dutch outfit.
The team has taken the string of bad news in stride with Vacansoleil manager Daan Luijkx commenting earlier this week: “We shouldn’t forget that in the beginning of 2009 we had the goal to do one Grand Tour within three years and since that goal we experienced incredible growth.” Last year the team secured an invite to the Vuelta a Espana and performed well, coming home with a stage win by sprinter Borut Bozic, and fielding an animated Johnny Hoogerland who attacked all the way to Madrid, finishing the race in 12th overall.