I awoke in the morning to find two texts on my phone. However, one of them was from a random fan so I by-passed it. Instead I opened the other one which said:
'Hi Vincenzo,
I hope all is well with you. I am Miguel, manager of Omega Pharma Quickstep. I was wondering if you could meet me in Turin later today.
Miguel'
I was at that time in Rome so I got into my car and drove to Turin. He must've seen me when I entered Turin as I got another text:
'Park at the nearest parking lot. I will see you there'
I parked and waited. I was on the bottom floor as the parking lot was mainly empty. Then I saw a man dressed in absurd Omega Pharma Quickstep gear. I was gobsmacked.
"Are you Miguel?" I stammered.
"No, I am a representative of Omega Pharma Quickstep as Miguel could unfortunately not come today. How are you?" The man asked.
"I'm fine. So what do you want me for, do you have a contract for me? I do have a lot of offers right now though so it better be a good one."
"Calm down. Anyway I'm sure I'll have a very tempting offer for you. Here it is:
He lay down a piece of paper on my car's bonnet.
Vincenzo Moretti
Team role - Free element in certain races, leader in Tirreno-Adriatico
Length - 1 Season
Wage - 8000 Euros a month
Signed - Miguel
Signed -
I immediately signed once I saw the team role and lucrative wage.
Vincenzo Moretti
Team role - Free element in certain races, leader in Tirreno-Adriatico
Length - 1 Season
Wage - 8000 Euros a month
Signed - Miguel
Signed - Vincenzo Moretti
And that was that. I booked a flight to Belgium to meet my new team and off I went. The man walked away without even telling me his name but I didn't care. I had just gotten my first professional contract. Maybe I would one day win the Giro...
Edited by francopell on 26-10-2012 16:41
First of all, let me say how nice it is to be here. The staff and all the riders have given me a very warm welcome. I'm absolutely honoured to be part of such a great team. I'm 100% focused on the upcoming season, confident we'll have some great results!
You are all probably wondering who I am and where I come from, so I won't keep you waiting. My name is Rudy Verboven, I'm a 19 year old Flemish rider, and this will be my first season. Of course I was amazed that a ProTour team immediatly picked me up, and the terms they offered me were incredibly generous, so I didn't need to think about it much. "Just tell me where to sign already!", I remember saying.
I'm specialised in classic races, as it's only fitting for a OPQS rider. But of course I'm not going to win Ronde van Vlaanderen yet. I have two goals this year: learn and improve. The first one shouldn't be hard, I'll be riding for Tom Boonen, one of my childhood heroes. He's already given me a few tips, and I hope to learn much more from him during the season. I'm gonna keep an close eye on him, trying to see what he does where in the race. My second goal will be achieved with the help of my manager. It's not 100% set yet, but he let me have a vote in my programme for this year. Due to training and racing the right races, I hope to grow above myself this year.
As I said, nothing is 100% sure yet, but I'll probably start my season in Australia, then riding the Tirreno in preparation of Milan-San Remo. This will be my first real test to see how far I can get. I'm hoping to survive the Poggio, but we'll see. After my trip to Italy, I'm coming home to ride my favourite classics, the cobbles. I'm really aiming for the E3, and my manager promised me that if all goes well, I might even lead the team! I'll stick around for Wevelgem, and if all goes well, I'll be dropping off Tom 300m before the finish. One week later it's my highlight of the season, De Ronde van Vlaanderen. My form should reach a peek for this race, and I'm hoping I won't disappoint my team. Roubaix is one week later, of course this is another race where I want to do my absolute best. My form should still be good enough for the Amstel Gold Race, where I still mean to try something, despite the lack of cobbles. Fleche Wallon and Liege-Bastogne-Liege are probably a bit hard for me, but if the form is still good and them team needs me, I'll happily ride there
Eneco Tour is a Belgian race, so I really want to show myself to my fans. The GC will be for someone else, but I am going to try to go away with a stage win. Next I'm going to do a few more classics, San Sebastian, Vattenfall, Plouay, Montreal and Quebec. These should get me ready for the WC, where I want to be really good. My season ends in Lombardia, and if I still have some energy left, I'll show myself one last time!
As you see, I'm not riding any Grand Tours this year. Despite the challenge to finish it, I would feel completely useless there. I can't sprint, I've never seen a mountain, and my timetrial skills are like my firetruck: I don't have a firetruck. The team has better people to send out, so I'll just keep training. But who knows, maybe next year.
I hope you enjoyed this, now I'm going to hop on my bike again and do my daily kilometres. All the best and I'll give you more news once the season starts!
Marco Bandiera
Tom Boonen
Matt Brammeier
Sylvain Chavanel
Gerald Ciolek
Andrew Fenn
Michal Golas
František Rabon
Niki Terpstra
Martin Velits
