As the 2013 season approaches, our mind turns to contract negotiations. We will have plenty more information on that fairly soon but for the moment let's look at the overall plan for the coming season.

Our team performed exceptionally well on the cobbles last year, with both Pieter Vanspeybrouck and Niels Albert bringing in multiple wins on that terrain. Nikolas Maes disappointed us in that he did not take a win last year. Our focus this year will remain on these cobled races and we hope that we can win at least one of the Belgian classics this year, which continued to elude us right through the season last year.

Jelle Vanendert had a fairly disappointing season last year but we decided to give him another chance after his victory at the Giro dell'Appellenio. He teamed up with Cyril Gautier very well throughout the year and they were both constant aggressors. This year we hope to strengthen our squad in the hills a bit, but we don't think that there will be a huge change in leadership.

Michiel Elijzen disappointed us right through the year as he just couldn't bring in the results we wanted. He was on the podium numerous times but results eluded him. This year we expect him to leave for another squad and we hope to replace him with another time trialist, preferably someone who can perform well on the hills. Some names have been thrown around the press room as possible targets and we will address these rumours soon.

Finally, in the sprints we only had Jurgen Van Loocke, who won a stage of the Tour de Faso, his last ever race with us and potentially his last race ever. We will certainly not be renewing his contract this year and instead we will be looking for at least one sprinter who can bring in enough points constantly throughout the season to help us to gain promotion.

And that brings us to the guiding principle of this coming season - we want to be one of the teams which promotes to the ProTour and we will build our squad with this in mind. That said, we will certainly not forsake our goal of having the most Belgian team in the world and in fact we expect the ratio of Belgians to foreigners to increase this year as the riders loaned out return to us. Any and all Belgians available for transfer will be considered, though we will only choose those who we believe can assist us in promoting.

After a great deal of thought the following rider renewals will be attempted. One or two may change depending on wage demands but it is unlikely that there will be drastic differences:

Definitely staying (Not available for transfer):
Pieter Vanspeybrouck
Niels Albert
Jelle Vanendert
Johan Vansummeren
Welle Jallays
Sven Vandousselaere
Joeri Stallaert
William Maesen
Guillaume van Keirsbulck

Renewed and likely to stay, but available for transfer:
Cyril Gautier
Remco Broers
Francis De Greef
Kevin Peeters
Ben Curfs
Mathieu La Lavandier*
Maxime La Lavandier*
Frederik Frison
Julien Paquet **

Renewed but looking to transfer out:
Nikolas Maes
Michiel Elijzen
Tom Stubbe
Jan Polanc

Not Renewed:
Stephane Poulhies
Robin Stenuit
Jakob Steigmiller **
Mike De Bie **
Jasper Stuyven **

*The La Lavandiers may only be transfered in a deal involving both riders. They have expressed their desire already to race together next season.
** Stagiare in the previous season

Rumours have come to light that place Cyril Guatier with Pendleton's for next year, hoping to take his chance in the ProTour and to work for their francophile manager. His skills in the hills are seen as worthwhile to the team as they build on this year's successes in the Ardennes. It is not apparent as to what the deal would involve.

We are pleased to announce today that we can unveil the jersey we will be riding in next season. It was originally designed differently but now we are much happier with the second version thanks to ANFreeman, the expert designer. Without further ado here it is:



We hope to see it winning races more often than last year.

We are now in a position to reveal those names which we will likely be targeting in the off season. First off we would like to discuss the young talents who we have our eyes on. There probably won't be too many surprises here, but it will be interesting for some nonetheless. Particularly that meddlesome HTC Nieuwsblad team...

At the absolute top of our list is Tim Wellens. Belgian climbers are fairly rare and it is clear already that Tim will be one of the best in the future. We will do whatever it takes to bring him on board and we can already state that he will be our number 1 priority.

Another name near the top of the list is Sean De Bie. This kid can do absolutely everything. He is capable of becoming either a stage racer, a time trialist or even one of the world's best puncheurs. Undoubtedly he will be a popular name this transfer season but we are willing to spend quite a lot to secure his signature and believe that his development would be best served by joining our team.

While we would like to see Tom Van Asbroeck join our team as well, as he is a rider whom I have enourmous respect for, it seems unlikely that we will be able to secure the signatures of all three of the top Belgian talents, but he will form a fall-back if either of the above two grow too expensive.

We are always looking to improve the classics department of our team and one man who we believe can do that is Tim Declerq. Already talented on both hills and cobbles, we think that he will one day form a solid replacement for Johan Vansummeren - that is to say, a brilliant support rider in all sorts of classics.

Finally there are a couple of strong riders who spent last season at Webeffect who we will try to find space for on our roster. They are Romain Zingle and Kris Boeckmans. Both of them have a fair bit of experience under their belt and we believe that both are already capable of winning smaller races. Their development would likely benefit from partnership with us.