After a long day of waiting, Lars Boom has signed a two-year contract for VI. The 10-times Dutch cyclocross champion (5x elite) will focus on this year's cobblestone classics, and will try to be the first Dutch rider in the yellow jersey in the Tour since.. Well, way too long! Shirtly after the signing, the fansites were already flushed with positive comments: "Lars is exactly the Dutch rider we need, congratulations VI!"

Lars Boom will ride the GP Sven Nys on January 5 as a preparation for this year's season. VI Cycling will report this race. If nothing goes wrong, he will fly to the training camp in California along with the others the next day. VI cycling will also report that training camp, and a photoshoot has also been planned.

Metec, VI's developement team, has appearantly offered Juraj Sagan (hey, you know how news articles work.. They only want you to read it :) ) a two-year contract for their team. If he does well, he might go to the World Tour team in 2013. Sagan, however, has denied any contact with Metec: "I want to wait as long as possible to see if I can join a WT or Continental team. And even if not, I'd rather go to VI than Metec"

The next aim on the transfer market is to get either a very talented or Dutch rider. Best would be both, of course, and that's when we start thinking about Wilco Kelderman. Other Dutch riders of interest are Johnny Hoogerland, Thomas Dekker, Lieuwe Westra and Kenny van Hummel. The team has already shown interest in Jack Bobridge, Taylor Phinney and Nairo Quintana. Who will be our newest addition? We'll find out tomorrow!

When Gilbert was doing his training run in the Ardennes, he came through a busy city, and two fans (one of them was on the right) noticed his helmet (picture)

As you can see, Gilbert was wearing a red-white helmet, often used by polka dot jersey wearers during the Tour de France. Does this mean that is a goal for him this year? Shortly after the picture was leaked, Gilbert responded on his (non-existant) Twitter page: "Don't worry! I won't go for #polkadot ! The team has no official helmet supplier so I just borrowed one!"

Is he speaking the truth? Will we see Gilbert attacking in mountain stages? All we know so far is that the car behind him on the picture definately needs a new front window.

Some eyes couldn't be opener at the moment VI announced Michael Matthews as their new team member. The talented Australian was signed to lead out Sagan in the sprints, his ability to climb will certainly prove worthful. Perhaps he could also go for his own chance in the smaller, non-WT stages.

Since the Australian Championships will start on January 9, Michael will not be able to go on a training camps with us. Instead, he will fly to Australia tomorrow to make sure he won't have jetlag problems, and he will continue his season preparation there.

Because of the lack of freedom in the ardennes, Peter Sagan has decided to train on sprints as much as possible this season, with Matthews as his leadout. Peter has said that he wants to win a hilly stage in the Tour, by being one of the only sprinters to survive. Expect to see him training on the track soon!

According to Denny Nelissen's column in ProCycling, VI has asked him to become one of the two trainers. Nelissen (41), ex-cyclist and polka dot jersey wearer in the Tour, said he is interested, however, he's not sure if it's combinable, especially because he still has a contract to analyse races in Tour du Jour and on Eurosport.

Rigoberto Urán has demanded a South American climber/helper for him. He feels unhappy between "all those foreign people", and wants a roommate during the big tours he's riding, preferably a Colombian. "VI said they had Nairo Quintana high on their list two drafts ago... But they got a Dutch rider and an Australian, do they really care about me then?"