By AAP
November 2nd 2009 @ 6:27am
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Evans may join new British team after quitting Silence
Britain’s new Team Sky has emerged as a likely new home for Australian cycling star Cadel Evans in his Tour de France title quest after he opted to quit Silence-Lotto.
The Belgium-based team announced Evans’s departure on Sunday after five years which yielded two Tour de France runner-up finishes, saying he’d decided to exercise a leave clause in his contract.
He has been linked to the British Sky TV-backed team which has Australian Scott Sunderland as sporting director and two Australians – Simon Gerrans and Chris Sutton – among 19 riders signed so far.
It’s believed Evans’s relationship with Silence-Lotto soured in the wake of his poor Tour de France in July when he finished a distant 30th, toiling with little support from team-mates.
And he’s in a strong position to capitalise on his status as road race world champion – following his triumph in Medrisio, Switzerland in September – to seek a stronger team which can better assist him on the multi-stage classics.
Silence-Lotto manager Marc Sergeant said his team had been informed by Evans’s manager of his intention to leave shortly after the 32-year-old arrived in Australia last week to promote his new book.
“Last Monday Cadel travelled to Australia. Then his manager informed us that he planned on using the clause (to leave) in his contract,” Sergeant told Belgian media outlet Sporza.
Team Sky will begin life on the ProTour next year, starting in Adelaide at the Tour Downunder, having been set up with the aim of producing a British winner of the Tour de France within five years.
Sky was apparently keen on having English star Bradley Wiggins as their general classification rider for 2010 after he finished fourth in the Tour de France this year.
But as Wiggins, the winner of last month’s Victorian tour, is already contracted to the Garmin-Slipstream team, Evans might be the best fit.
Team Sky looks poised to make a decent impact in its debut season with a healthy-looking roster.
Australian rider Sutton is among their latest signings, the 25-year-old sprinter joining from Garmin-Slipstream.
Fellow recruit and countryman Gerrans won stages on both the Tour of Italy and Tour of Spain this year, making him the first Australian to claim a stage victory on all three grand tours following a 2008 Tour de France success.
As to who will take over from Evans as team leader at Silence-Lotto, Sergeant rather hopefully threw up the name of reigning and two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.
“Whether this (Evans’ departure) will cause us to have a difficult tour? That is possible, but it remains to be seen,” Sergeant said.
“We can now ride for Jurgen Van den Broeck, but we also have to look at who else is on the market. Contador? I read that four teams interested. Why not five teams now?”
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