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Tuesday, 23 February 2010 21:04 |
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For a second consecutive year, numerous people have showed up at the official presentation of team Linger-Versluys 2010 on Velofollies in Kortrijk Xpo. As the team’s manager Niek Lingier has become an icon in the Belgian mountain biking world, this season will be the most challenging and ambitious, one hoping to stand out among the team’s five year of existence. The primary target of the team for this season is to prepare one of its riders, who is actually third in the Belgium UCI rank list, to participate in the Olympic Games in London in 2012 as well as in Mexico in 2016. It is anticipated that one to be the promising Sebastien Carabin, or the well known elite - Nicolas Vermeulen.
As the team had gone through some serious transformations these past two yeas, two of the drivers decided to look for other teams in fear of empty promises. So in place of Dries Govaerts and the junior Ruben Scheire, the new members of the team will be Kevin van Hoovels from MTB Team Langdorp and Bart Van Hecke, who after a two year break from MTB decided to make reappearance. The other members of the team remain the same, meaning the old and loyal Nicolas Vermeulen and Bjorn Rondelez, as well as Sebastien Carabin. The Lingier-Versluys UCI Trade Team has also three young prospects in its ranks. Two of them are Laurence and Thibault Vuylsteke, both aspiring riders, and finally, last but not least, we have Matthieu Dehaeze – a new young addition to the team, making his debut as a novice.
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2010 is the year of Linger- Versluys. As for the wish list, it seems endless: new title of the Belgian marathon, podium for the Tour de France VTT, MTB Kustciterium profit in the end, a top 30th place in WB-race, top-5 in the Cape Epic and most important, the Belgian being third on the UCI rankings after Roel Paulissen and Sven Nys. To the Niek Lingier team manager this all seems very ambitious but also achievable. "The Lingier-Versluys Team is a whole puzzle whose pieces fit together perfectly. Together with the riders, trainers, supervisors and sponsors such as Hope, Scott, and Versluys I firmly believe that we shall succeed in our mission", he declares.
After the presentation, journalists were anxious to take a chance and do some interviews. The team stayed for one more hour, before heading out for their first game in this fresh new season, which accidentally was won by their team’s driver Nicolas Vermeulen.
Linger-Versluys team 2010:
Nicolas Vermeulen (elites)
Kevin Van HOOVELS (elites)
Bjorn Rondelez (elites)
Bart Van Hecke (elites)
Sebastien Carabin (promises)
Mathieu Dehaeze (newcomer)
Thibault Vuylsteke (prospective)
Laurence Vuylsteke (prospective)
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