Finnish champion is first rider named in what looks to be a busy transfer period for the Belgian team
Finnish champion Jussi Veikkanen has signed a two-year contract with OmegaPharma-Lotto, the Belgian team confirmed today. The 29-year-old has ridden his entire six-year professional career to date for the Française des Jeux team.
Aside from his fifth career national championships, this year Veikkanen won the second stage of the Tour of the Mediterranean; he took the race lead and held it until the final stage, which finished at the top of Mont Faron. He finished the race in seventh place, but this was later adjusted to sixth after the retrospective suspension of Alejandro Valverde.
The Finn’s most successful season to date was 200X, when he won a stage of the Route du Sud and a stage of the Deutschland Tour, eventually finishing the race in tenth place. That year he also finished fifth overall in the Tour de Wallonie and fourth overall in the Tour de l’Ain. In 2009 he finished ninth overall in the tour Down Under, second overall in the Tour of the Mediterranean and third overall in the Tour du Haut Var.
Veikkanen is the first confirmed transfer involving the OmegaPharma-Lotto team, but a number of others are rumoured. German sprinters André Greipel and Gerald Ciolek have both been linked with moves to the Belgian team, as HTC-Columbia favours Mark Cavendish and Milram looks set to fold. Roman Kreuziger, currently at Lquigas-Doimo, has also been rumoured to be talking to the team.
Belgians Greg Van Avermaet and Leif Hoste are the two big names who look set to leave.