French champion to stay with Belgian team through 2013
Sylvain Chavanel has signed a two-year extension to his contract with Quick Step, meaning that the Frenchman will be with the Belgian team – which will merge with Omega Pharma next year – through 2013. The French champion has been with Quick Step since 2009, having previously ridden exclusively from French teams, and enjoyed some of the best years of his career to date.
“I’m very happy with the agreement we reached,” the Frenchman explained. “I get on well on this team and with them these past few years I’ve made a lot of progress, obtaining some of my most prestigious victories.
“My thanks goes to [general manager Patrick] Lefevere and the team for the faith they’ve always placed in me,” he continued. “I was also very impressed with the important projects the team is working on for the future and I like the idea of being a part of things with an important role to play. My future objective is to improve even further and to try and succeed in a great classic with this team. This year I’ve proven that I can do it.”
During his three years with Cofidis, Chavanel took three national time trial championships in four years and, finally, a stage of the tour in 2008. It was his move to Quick Step in 2009 though that saw him start to take bigger results, with third place in Paris-Nice, second in the Eneco Tour, and a career-best nineteenth in the Tour de France.
2010 saw “La Machine” take his most prestigious results though, winning two stages of the Tour, taking the yellow jersey both times. This season he has taken his first ever national road championships, as well as second place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen after being one of the most aggressive riders of the spring. Unfortunately he was not able to show off his Tricolore as much as he would have liked in the Tour though, spending much of the race suffering from the after effects of a crash on stage five.
“For us it’s gratifying to be able to count on Sylvain for the near future,” said Lefevere. “We already had an agreement with him for 2012 and we decided together to prolong the deal to the end of 2013.
“Sylvain is a great rider but he’s also a team player, someone we can always count on,” he added. “His presence on the team is also an important example for the younger guys, and he transmits serenity to his team mates.”