Garmin-Slipstream Pro Cycling Team officially announced the 2009 roster today during the team presentation in Boulder, Colorado. For the first time, the team will hit the ProTour circuit with an impressive 29-man squad that includes Olympic, world and national champions.
Most of the 2008 team remains, including stars Christian Vande Velde, David Millar and US national road champion David Zabriskie. New to the team is Olympic and world champion Bradley Wiggins, a British track star. World track champion in the 4K individual pursuit, team pursuit (world record) and the madison, Wiggins also won Olympic gold medals in the 4K individual pursuit and the team pursuit in Beijing this summer.
Impressive Canadians talents Svein Tuft and Christian Meier join the team for 2009. Despite an unfortunate flat, Tuft managed to take the silver medal in the 2008 world time trial championships in Varese, Italy. Current Canadian national road champion, Meier has been riding for the team as a hard-working stagiaire for the last few months.
Dutch rider Hans Dekkers joins the team as a talented sprinter. After coming back from an early season knee injury, Dekkers beat Tom Boonen to win the Nationale Sluitingprijs this October. The youngest additions to the team are 20-year-old Australian rider Cameron Meyer and 21-year-old Dutch rider Richard Van Der Velde, both considered up-and-coming all around riders.
Meet Garmin-Slipstream!
Magnus Backstedt, Sweden
Blake Caldwell, USA
Steven Cozza, USA
Tom Danielson, USA
Julian Dean, New Zealand
Hans Dekkers, Holland
Jason Donald, USA
Timmy Duggan, USA
Huub Duyn, Holland
Lucas Euser, USA
Tyler Farrar, USA
Mike Friedman, USA
Will Frischkorn, USA
Ryder Hesjedal, Canada
Trent Lowe, Australia
Martijn Maaskant, Holland
Dan Martin, Ireland
Christian Meier, Canada
Cameron Meyer, Australia
David Millar, United Kingdom
Danny Pate, USA
Kilian Patour, France
Tom Peterson, USA
Chris Sutton, Australia
Svein Tuft, Canada
Richard Van Der Velde, Holland
Christian Vande Velde, USA
Bradley Wiggins, United Kingdom
David Zabriskie, USA