Sunweb’s new name, Israel Start-Up Nation’s new DS: Daily News Digest
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Hello again, CyclingTips readers,
We close out the week with another busy news day in the world of cycling.
Another WorldTour team has announced that it will ride under a new name next year, as Team Sunweb is becoming Team DSM for 2021, Cherie Pridham will join Israel Start-Up Nation as first female sport director for a men’s WorldTour team next year, and more transfer announcements continue to trickle in.
Read on for more …
Dane Cash,
News Editor
What’s News
| Team Sunweb will continue as Team DSM
Team Sunweb announced on Friday that it will ride under a new title sponsor in 2021 as Team DSM.
Sunweb, a Dutch travel company joined the team as title sponsor in 2017, but faced financial difficulties amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the teamm will thus turn to DSM to take over as its new title sponsor. The company started out as Dutch State Mines, but has since grown into a company largely focusd on health and nutrition.
| Cherie Pridham will be the first female DS on the men’s WorldTour
Israel Start-Up Nation has announced that Cherie Pridham will join the team as a sport director, making her the first female DS on a men’s WorldTour squad.
“I feel truly proud and privileged to be the first woman to serve as a sport director at the WorldTour level, joining one of the best teams in the world and being entrusted with great and legendary riders,” Pridham said in a statement from the team. “So, for me, I want to get it right because when I do, I know that it will inspire others to take the same journey and that really does mean something to me.”
Pridham is coming aboard after spending years with the Raleigh team that has since become Vitus Pro Cycling, where she was a sport director and manager, and ultimately became the team owner. This season was the last for the British Continental team, which has folded amid difficulties finding sponsorship funds. Now, Pridham is headed to the WorldTour with Israel Start-Up Nation, which is bringing on plenty of new riders (like Chris Froome) for next year as well.
| Qhubeka-Assos adds Pelucchi and Hansen, extends Janse van Rensburg
The NTT team that will become Qhubeka-Assos next year has signed Matteo Pelucchi and Lasse Norman Hansen and re-signed Reinardt Janse van Rensburg.
Pelucchi, 31, will join the team after spending 2020 with Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè. The Italian speedster counts WorldTour level stage wins at the Tour of Poland and Tirreno-Adriatico on his career palmares, among other victories. Hansen, 28, has won gold medals in the Olympics and at Track Worlds, and he will likely play a support role in the sprints for Qhubeka-Assos after spending the past two seasons with Alpecin-Fenix. Janse van Rensburg, 31, has been with the team for the past six years, most notably winning the Tour de Langkawi in 2016. The versatile South African has also won national titles in both the road race and the time trial.
The team also confirmed that its feeder squad, the NTT Continental team, will continue in 2021 as Team Qhubeka.
| EF signs Diego Camargo
Diego Camargo is headed to EF on a two-year deal. The 22-year-old Colombian, who rode for the Colombia Tierra de Atletas-GW Bicicletas Continental squad this season, will join EF after a strong 2020 campaign that saw him win both the Vuelta a Juventud and the Vuelta a Colombia.
As EF team CEO Jonathan Vaughters pointed out in a team statement, “He’s one of very few riders ever to win the Vuelta Juventud and Vuelta Colombia in the same year. And one of a very small group of riders who have won the Vuelta Colombia as a u23. [Richard] Carapaz and [Sergio] Henao being two others.”
| US CX champ Hecht joins Trek Factory Racing
Gage Hecht, who won a US national cyclocross title in 2019, has joined Trek Factory Racing, the team announced on Friday.
The 22-year-old American has spent the past few seasons combining his road and cyclocross ambitions with Aevolo, riding to an under-23 national time trial title and a stage victory at the Colorado Classic in 2018.
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Today’s featured image is from the archives of Cor Vos. Can you name the rider, whose career palmares included two Monument wins, two Tour de France stage victories, and a world cyclocross title?
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