Bike World News

In today’s cycling news, off season transfer news from Radio Shack, Rapha, Team Sky & more; Columbia’s Michael Rogers steps into leadership role; Bram de Groot retires and more…

In local news, the village of Norwood is giving their village idiot a night off, as a VII is in town for a book signing.

The news:

• Rapha Condor has announced the names for their 2010 squad. National Road Race Champion Kristian House, Elite Circuit Race Series winner Dean Downing, Olympic bronze medalist Chris Newton, Darren Lapthorne, Tom Southam, African Champion Dan Craven, Ben Greenwood and Matt Cronshaw all return. New arrivals for 2010 are Britain’s Graham Briggs (who rode for the team in the 2008 season) and recently turned pro Jonathan Tiernan Locke, who will look to flourish within this strong team. Also joining the squad are two Australians, Zak Dempster and Dean Windsor.
• Dmitriy Muravyev is the latest rider to move from Astana to Team RadioShack. This brings the number of riders who have jumped ship with Lance Armstrong to 11. The others are Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Klöden, Janez Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Sergio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, Gregory Rast, José Luis Rubiera and Tomas Vaitkus.
• Sean Yates will leave the Astana team for a management position with Team Sky.
• 2009 Women’s Road World Champion Tatiana Guderzo will ride for Team Valdarno in 2010.
• With the departures of Kim Kirchen, Thomas Lövkvist and George Hincapie from the team, Columbia-HTC’s Michael Rogers finds himself in a leadership position with the team. He plans to focus his efforts in 2010 on the Tour de France, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of California.
• The Ceramica Flaminia team has signed an agreement with Carrera to provide helmets,goggles and sunglasses for the next two years.
• Iban Mayoz will leave Xacobeo-Galicia to rider for Footon-Servetto for the next two years.
• Bram de Groot has decided to retire from cycling. The 34-year-old Dutchman was not offered a new contract by Rabobank and confirmed that he will not search for another team. De Groot, who lives in Lanaken, Belgium rode his last race in Las Vegas, where he tested a new ‘cross bike for Giant at CrossVegas.
• The new Tour of Oman will take place from February 14th to 19th, shortly after the Tour of Qatar. The race will be operated by the ASO, the same organization that runs the Tour de France and the Tour of Qatar.
• After missing the start of the 2009 cyclocross season due to a bout with the cytomegalovirus, Bart Wellens will make his comeback UCI World Cup ‘cross race at Koksijde (November 28th). He is in the pre-selection for the race, but Fidea-Telenet team coach Rudy De Bie will make the final call before the race.

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