HTC-HighRoad has anounced that Tim Wellens has signed a 3-year contract with the team.
The 24-year-old Belgian rider, who yesterday secured his second Eneco Tour win in a row, is set to be the leader in the Ardennes classics.
He became professional in 2012, after signing a stagiere contract with Lotto Soudal. After finishing in top10 of Tour de L'Avenir, he made his debut in a monument in Giro di Lombardia, ending the race in top50. After that, he impressed everyone with a 10th place in Tour of Beijing. His 2013 campaign was very anonymous, just before his breakthrough year; 2014.
After finishing second in Belgium ITT C'ship, he rode Giro d'Italia, taking 2 second places. In August, we would go onto winning Eneco Tour, after a great attack in the stage that finished in Aywaille. He ended the season with a forth place in Giro di Lombardia, his best result in a monument classic.
This year he was able to finish 10th in Paris-Nice, and despite a dissapointing debut in Tour de France, he returned to Eneco Tour to take a second GC win
Spoiler
After taking the screenshot, I edit Tim so he has now a favourite temperature and weather; cold and rain. You all now that he is a master in rain, with almost every win of his career being under the rain
Three new signings for HTC-HighRoad; Alberto Bettiol, Damien Howson and Owain Doull.
The first one is a 21-year-old Italian, who can perform well in hilly stages and has a decent sprint abilites. He's currently riding for Cannondale-Garmin, with whom he became professional in 2014. He has signed for the next two years
Alberto Bettiol
Damien Howson is a 23-year-old Australian whose speciality are timetrials.
His best results this year are his 5th place in Herald Sun Tour, and 4th place in Tour de Pologne's final timetrial. He could develop into a great domestique
Damien Howson
The last one is Owain Doull, 22, from Great Britain, who has focused on track until now. He's an all-rounder who has a great speed. His contract is for 3 years, so at the end of it he might be a star or a crash
Former Giro d'Italia winner, Damiano Cunego, has signed with HTC-HighRoad for one season.
The 33-year-old Italian, who also has won three times Giro di Lombardia, will join our Ardennes squad, with a support rol for Tim Wellens. He will also race Giro d'Italia, to support whoever is the team leader in that race.
In his palmares, his best win are his Giro d'Italia (2004), his three Lombardia (04,07,08), 1 Amstel (08) and 6 stages in GT
Nikias Arndt
HTC-HighRoad welcomes Nikias Arndt, a 23-year-old German, who currently rides for Giant-Alpecin.
The German rider is a sprinter who can perform really well in timetrials. His best win so far is a stage in last year's Dauphine Libere. This year he's still winless, but he was second in both TT and RR in German Championship, when he was surprisingly beaten by Emmanuel Buchmann in a two-way sprint for the title
His goals for this season are to be a lead-out men for the main sprinter, our to play his own cards in reduced-bunch sprints or in breakaways
HTC-HighRoad is happy to anounce Caleb Ewan as his latest signing for the next 3 years.
The Australian, 21, despite being in his first pro season, has already won a stage in Vuelta a España (stage 5, Alcala de Guadaira). He has won 10 races so far this year, just one shy of the record of most wins in first pro season, which is shared by Cavendish and Petacchi, with 11 wins.
In his U23 time, he won 3 stages of Tour de L'Avenir and got a silver medal in 2014 U23 World Championship.
In 2015, he started the season by finishing second in Australian Championship, before winning two stages in Herald Sun Tour, his first pro wins. Later in the season, he won two stages in Langkawi, Vuelta a La Rioja and Tour de Korea, with 4 stage wins, before finishing twice in top4 in sprints in Pologne.
With lot of years ahead of him, his goal is to be the best sprinter in the world, a feat that in HTC-HighRoad we are pleased to help him in the next 3 years
Fifth rider for HTC-HighRoad. Joe Dombrowski, 24, who one month ago won Tour of Utah, will join HTC for one season. This year he also ended forth in Tour of California, making this season his most succesfull of his career.
Spoiler
It is rumoured that he has a clause in his contract which says that if he can't find a team for 2017 season, he will become team CM on Twitter
Ben King
Another rider for HTC-HighRoad. Ben King is a combative rider, who is good enough in all terrains to get into all types of breakaway.
In his career he has only won 2 races, a stage in Criterium International this year, and the American Championship in 2010
Shih Hsin Hsiao
This signing looks like a sponsor requirement, as this rider doesn't have enough level to be in a WT team. Let's see if he will be just the Taiwanese rider or he can earn himself a name in the future
Spoiler
You might have noticed that all his stats are 66. Despite you can think that i have edit that, i haven't. Incredibly he's a regen. When i was looking for a Taiwanese rider for the sponsor requirements, i couldn't believe what i was seeing
4 times Spanish TT champion Luis Leon Sanchez joins HTC-HighRoad for 2016 season. Currently riding for Astana Team, the Spanish rider has won lots of WT races, including a Paris-Nice, 2 Clasica San Sebastian and 4 stages in Tour de France.
Really good in TT, he's an all-rounder, who will be valuable domestique for GT leaders, as he is suppoused to race Tour and Vuelta this year
Thomas de Gendt
Thomas de Gendt, 28, signs with HTC-HighRoad for one season. He has just a few wins a pro, but almost all of them are high quality.
Third place in 2012 Giro d'Italia, after an increible stage win in Passo dello Stelvio, is the best performance in his career.
He will have the same role as Luisle, domestique in GT, and freedom in other races
Tejay van Garderen is oficially HTC-HighRoad rider for the next two season, returning to his previous team back in 2010-2011 seasons.
The American rider, who currently rides for BMC, will be the team leader in Grand Tours. He've know that his 2016 season might not be focused on Tour de France, instead of that, he might go for Giro and/or Vuelta.
In 2010, he made his debut as a pro for this team, surpinsingly finishing third in Dauphine Libere, only beated by Janez Brajkovic and Alberto Contador. Then he raced Vuelta a España, finishing inside top40 his first GT.
In his last season in HTC, he made his debut in Tour de France, before winning his first pro win in a stage of Tour of Utah
Once he signed for BMC for 2012 season, he had a strong season until arriving to the Tour, when he was going to be Cadel Evans' lieteunant. Despite losing some minutes in the first mountain stage, a strong TT put him inside top10, and with a strong third week, including another great TT, made him finishing fifth Tour de France, winning the white jersey.
Next season, he had a dissapointing Tour de France, despite having won previously in the season Tour of California. After the Tour, he won Tour of Colorado.
In 2014, he was back at his level in Tour de France, finishing fifth again, like two years ago. He also won Tour of Colorado, by the second year in a row.
This season, he won a stage in Cataluña, then finished second in Dauphine, and then had to abandon Tour de France while he was third overall. After a crash in Vuelta a España, he has ended his season, definitely not his best, but he's looking to come back stronger with HTC
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
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Ian Boswell, the 24-year-old American rider, arrives to HTC-HighRoad for 2016 season, coming from Team Sky.
Boswell, use to be a domestique rider in mountain stages is expected to have the same role in HTC. This year, he finished seventh in Tour of California, taking a third place in the only mountain stage of the race. Also in La Vuelta, he ended third in the "queen stage" after been in the breakaway
Wout van Aert
The 21-year-old Belgian, cyclo-cross rider, has decided to turn pro in road cycling with HTC-HighRoad. He has great abilities in descent and in short TT. He has signed a three-year contract with the team
Gianni Moscon
A future star. That's the only thing that you can say about Gianni Moscon.
The 21-year-old Italian has almost won everything in juniors and U23, including a pretigious win in Lombardia U23.
People says that he might be the first non-Belgian to win the 5 monuments. It's clear that he has a long way to the top of cycling, but he looks able to do it
Jarlinson Pantano signs for HTC-HighRoad for the next two season. The 27-year-old Colombian has great abilities in climbing, and is a superb descender. He has a good top speed in sprints, which has helped him to finish in good places in some stages in WT races this year
Michael Valgren
Former Danish road champion joins HTC-HighRoad. Michael Valgren, 23, who comes from Tinkoff-Saxo, where he has been last two seasons is a promising rider in hilly classics. He won twice Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23, showing his potential. He joins HTC for the next two years with the hope to become one of the best puncheurs in the world
Nikolas Maes leaves Etixx-Quick Step after 6 seasons, and joins HTC-HighRoad for 2016 season.
Maes is a domestique, who has a decent sprint and can ride well enough in cobbles. With only two wins in his career, a stage in Burgos (09) and World Ports overall (13), recently he was able to finish in the top10 in two Vuelta sprints. He will be a good domestique in cobbled classic and lead-out men for the main sprinters of the team
Soren Kragh Andersen
The 21-year-old Danish rider, will joins HTC-HighRoad for the next two seasons.
Soren Kragh Andersen is an all-rounder rider, highlighting in sprints and prologues. He won his first pro win this season in Tour des Fjords, winning the forth stage and finishing second in GC. Last month he won two stages in Tour de L'Avenir.
He has a bright future in front of him. Nobody really knows in what he can become
Big shock in Belgium. Tiesj Benoot leaves Lotto Soudal to joins HTC-HighRoad for the next two seasons. The future star in the cobbled classic in Belgium, as he proved in this year's Tour de Flanders, where in his first start, and with just 21 years, he finished fifth.
In 2014 he signed for Lotto Belisol as a stagiere, getting some good results in Tour of Denmark and finishing forth in U23 Worlds.
In 2015, he had some strong results in early March races, like 4º in Le Samyn, 3º in Handzame Classic, 6º in Dwars door Vlaanderen, before making his debut in Flanders, where he finished fifth. He made it into the podium in Belgium Tour, just beated by Van Avermaet, and did an incredible Dauphine, before finishing in top10 in both Belgium Championship, Eneco Tour and Montreal.
He's expected to do both cobbled and Ardennes classic this year, before focusing in the one-day WT classic of the second part of the season, without doing any GT. His fufure potential is shown in that he already has been upgraded 2 points in VAL and 1 in COB
rider for HTC-HighRoad. Joe Dombrowski, 24, who one month ago won Tour of Utah, will join HTC for one season. This year he also ended forth in Tour of California, making this season his most succesfull of his career.
