Title sponsors Silence and Lotto announced that they renewed their contract with the team with three more years. After
Davitamon and Predictor, Silence is the third brand of head sponsor Omega Pharma that will be promoted by the cycling team.
Asked about the influence of the problems in cycling, Marc Couke, CEO of Belgian Pharmacy giant Omega Pharma said
: "We invest about three million euros a year, we get back 13 million euros, so we have a good return of investment." Omega
Pharma and Lotto created a project with the Pro - Tour team as the main player but the two companies also finance
several U23 and Junior teams.
Last year the team was close to three big wins. Cadel Evas was second in the Tour de France, while Leif Hoste was close
to win the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix. The team has one main goal this year: to win one of these three races. Couke
said: "Every year we say that we are capable of winning a really big race. But until now it we have been unable to deliver." Cooke
continued by saying: "This year we are going for it, in the cobblestones classics and the tour. And I promise you that
if we win, the Tour of Flanders, Paris Roubaix, or the Tour de France, we will throw one of the biggest cycling parties Flanders
has ever seen." Couke smiled and concluded: "Well maybe a party where you have been waiting for... for such a long time will
only get better and better."
The team signed Ukrainian rider Yaroslav Popovych to help Cadel Evans in the Tour de France but Joseph Juffre and US rider
Chris Horner left the team. Cadel Evans told Cyclingheroes that "nobody knows why Horners contract wasn't renewed." But Evans
is looking forward to work together with Popovych.
The Tour team will be build around Cadel Evans, Robbie McEwen will have to sprint alone. McEwen told Cyclingheroes that
he will work for Evans at the mountain stages and that he will sprint alone. "Its all about getting the wheel of Pettacchi,"
McEwen said. The Australian sprinter will also focus on the Italian Classic Milano - San Remo.
Leif Hoste said that he should have "won last years Tour of Flanders." Hoste said he made a tactical mistake.
Cyclingheroes wíll publish interviews with Yaroslav Popovych, Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans in the coming days.
