Heads to rival American team for a change of pace
American Danny Pate will move over from Garmin-Transitions to the HTC-Columbia team for the 2011 season. During his career Pate has been a part of team time trial wins in both the Giro d’Itaila (2008) and Tour de Georgia (2008), secured stage wins at the Tour of Missouri (2007) and Tour de Beauce (2006), and taken the overall at the Tour de Toona (2002).
The former U23 world time trial champion finished third at the Critérium International last year and, although his 2010 hasn’t seen him land on the podium, his new HTC-Columbia team sees plenty of potential left in the 31 year old.
“We are happy to welcome Danny to the team,” said HTC-Columbia Team Manager Rolf Aldag. “We have followed him for some time and we really like the way he races. We believe he still has a lot of development in him. He has been U23 TT world champion, which means that he should be absolutely be competitive with the right support.”
Pate is thankful for the two seasons at Garmin-Transitions, but revealed he felt it was time to move on earlier in the season.
“I had a great time with Garmin-Transitions in 2008 and 2009,” said Pate, “but in the middle of this season I realized things had changed and I needed a change. So when the chance came to sign with HTC Columbia, I had no doubts that that’s where I wanted to be. I have experience, but I also know I can still improve. I am really looking forward to this new episode in my career.”