Belgian team fulfilling goal of forming powerful team to support Gilbert and Greipel
While the signing of HTC-Columbia sprinter, Andre Greipel, to Belgium’s Omega Pharma-Lotto team will guarantee many wins for the team in 2011, the team headed by Marc Coucke continues to focus on signing top support for the coming season to help bolster its three big stars, Philippe Gilbert, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, and now Andre Greipel.
The latest announcements from the team report that both Olivier Kaisen and Sebastian Lang will continue with the team for next season.
The former German time trial champion and multi-time top five finisher in the Tour de France’s time trials, Sebastian Lang, will form an essential part of the soon to be rolling Omega Pharma sprint train. It seems likely that Lang will fulfill a role like his German countryman, Bert Grabsch, does with admirable aplomb on the HTC-Columbia team. The big trains need fastmen for the finale, but also huge engines to spend countless hours at the head of affairs each and every day.
Olivier Kaisen’s re-signing keeps the theme of the critical big engine used for supporting the team’s stars going. The former U23 time trial champion is the typical unsung domestique: he doesn’t have a single result to his name in 2010 save for being a part of the 7th place finishing Omega Pharma team in the Giro’s team time trial earlier this year. The 27 year old Belgian isn’t entirely without results though. He can lay claim to two professional victories, the GP Gerrie Knetemann in 2007 and the fifth stage of the 2009 Tour of Turkey.
While results aren’t a priority for riders like Lang and Kaisen, the results of the riders they support are. Their roles will take on an even greater important in 2011 as Greipel readies to go head to head with Mark Cavendish, Van Den Broeck takes aim at the Tour de France podium, and Philippe Gilbert edges ever closer to sought after wins in the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.