Belgian champion to bolster Dutch team’s classics team and strengthen its bid to join cycling’s top level
After being strongly rumoured for some time, Stijn Devolder has officially signed for Professional Continental team Vacansoleil. The Belgian champion has a two-year contract with the Dutch team, which is aiming to join the International Cycling Union’s (UCI’s) top level ProTour next season.
“By including Devolder, [Björn] Leukemans, [Marco] Marcato, [Johnny] Hoogerland, [Lieuwe] Westra, [Joost] Van Leijen and [Jens] Mouris we will have a very strong team in 2011 for the Flemish classic races,” said team manager Daan Luijkx. “In addition, in Stijn we’re going to have an all-rounder for the whole season.”
30-year-old Devolder has ridden for Quick Step since 2008, where he was signed to support Tom Boonen in the cobbled classics; after having finished third in the Tour de Suisse, won the Österreich-Rundfahrt and led the Vuelta a España in 2007 while riding for Discovery Channel, he was also expected to be the Belgian team’s overall classification rider in the Tour de France.
Unfortunately for Devolder though, his Tour challenge never materialised but, more fortunately, while riding strongly with Boonen he managed to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen twice, in 2008 and 2009.
The Belgian’s 2010 classics campaign did not go well though, prompting Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere to put pressure on him in the Belgian media. He has won the Tour of Belgium and the Belgian national championships since, but both parties had made it clear that he would be moving elsewhere at the end of the year.
Vacansoleil’s bid to become the Netherlands’ second ProTour team, after Rabobank, is not assured however. Team Milram looks increasingly likely to fold, Spanish team Caisse d’Epargne has yet to announce a sponsor to replace the French bank, and Euskaltel-Euskadi is likely to suffer a budget cut. Competition for any vacant spots will come from the new Luxembourg team of Fränk and Andy Schleck, while the UCI may well encourage either or both of the BMC Racing Team and Cervélo TestTeam to take the step up.
There is also the possibility that one or both of Bbox Bouyges Telecom (under its new, unannounced sponsor) and Cofidis may try to regain the ProTour status that they were denied at the beginning of this year. Unless the UCI increases the number of places in the elite series some applicants will likely be disappointed.
There were originally 20 ProTour teams on the series’ launch in 2005, but the number was cut to 18 in 2008 when there weren’t enough teams to fill the available places after the Discovery Channel and Unibet teams folded.