Following a successful debut, the Dutch Pro-Continental team Vacansoleil will head into 2010 with an even larger budget. Wim Backers, owner of Vacansoleil, a company that books camping holidays, visited the Vuelta A Espana this week to look onto his team’s performance from behind the scenes.
Backers came back a proud man following an impressive debut that saw Slovenian sprinter Borut Bozic win stage six and Johnny Hoogerland hold 12th place in the general classification. “In 2010 the budget will grow by one million to 5.5 million euro. And following each year we will add something extra” explained Backers.
The Dutch team enjoyed 12 UCI wins in its first year with Bozic leading the charge with five stage wins. “It’s been fantastic how the guys have been performing this entire year. If you look at how great the group mentality is, it makes me feel emotionally involved. I notice that the vacation goers value that we do this as well. Of course we heard that it wasn’t smart to be involved with cycling, but most people are quite sympathetic. I’m happy that we did it,” reflected Backers.
In regard to their wild card invitation, Javier Guillen Director of the Vuelta was more than happy with their presence “We had requests from different countries, like Italy, but also a few Spanish teams. I expect a team that I invite to race aggressively. Vacansoleil has paid their invitation back with interest.”
At this rate Vacansoleil will be a likely bet for next year’s Tour de France, especially after signing French brothers Brice and Romain Feillu.