Loyal workers sign on for further years with Dutch squad
Rabobank domestiques Bram Tankink and Grischa Niermann have both signed contract extensions with the Dutch team for two years and one year respectively.
31-year-old Dutch rider Tankink has been with Rabobank since 2008, when he joined from Belgian team Quick Step. As a loyal team worker his personal results have few and far between but he did finish third overall in May’s Tour of Belgium, exactly a minute behind winner Stijn Devolder of Quick Step.
2011 will be Niermann’s 13th year with the orange jerseyed team, having ridden there since 1999, making him Rabobank’s longest serving rider. The 34-year-old German, like Tankink, has spent the majority of his career in the service of others and his one victory came way back in 2001 at the Nedersachsen-Rundfahrt.
Both riders are in the Rabobank team starting the Tour de France in the Dutch city of Rotterdam this afternoon.