I dunno if it’s the european heatwave that is making teams lazy but the first day was surprisingly slim with announcements. We had a few Scandinavian neo-pros with Danish Jonas Vingegaard going to (LottoNL) Jumbo on a two-year deal and Mikkel Honoré getting a stagiare spot this fall with Quick Step.
There was also the truly weird botched announcement of Aqua Blue buying the Verandas Willems team (with Wout van Aert) only to have the whole thing retracted hours later. Seems like they hadn’t dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on the deal before someone jumped the gun. Let’s see what happens
In women’s cycling there has been the (slightly surreally staged) announcement by Rochelle Gilmore that her Wiggle-High5 team is closing after this season. Looks like Wiggle were not extending and she had not found new sponsorship to keep going. There’s been an odd vibe around them all year, starting with the not so amicable split from many of the main staff on the eve of the season. On a more positive note, Trek are entering the women’s peloton for real with a team connected to their WT team Trek-Segafredo. Manager will be their now marketing director Tim Vanderjeugd and the sporting manager will be the legendary Ina Yoko Teutenberg, who has mainly coached the US development team since her ritirement from riding. Headline rider is confirmed to be Lizzie Deignan when she returns from childbirth and rumours also place heavy hitters like Elisa Longo Borghini and Ellen van Dijk with the team.
So, what else is happening?