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Cannondale’s 2006 mountain bike team
There’s been a bunch of announcements in recent weeks covering rider movement between old and new sponsors but, today, I’m going to focus on Cannondale and write about the company’s recent additions.
Cannondale lost a couple of its most visible riders in the past couple of months — Christoph Sauser moved to Specialized and, while there’s been no formal announcement, word is Cedric Gracia will return to French manufacturer Commencal. In response to Sauser’s departure, Cannondale signed two new riders and retained the services of two current riders. For 2006, Peter Riis Anderson and Jakob Fuglsang, both from Denmark are set to join Swedish ace Fredrik Kessiakoff and Kiwi Kashi Leuchs. Cannondale is making a good choice with these selections — the company looks set to develop some formidable young talent that Cannondale hopes will challenge for the cross country podium at the 2006 World Championships and in the 2008 Olympic Games.
While there seemed to be a little bitterness in the Cannondale camp when Sauser left, there was no such public display about Gracia, other than renaming the Gracia’s signature bike the ‘Judge’. Looking for a replacement for Gracia, Cannondale instead went for two riders instead of one, snapping up former Haro rider Mick Hannah and adding freerider Carlo Deickmann to the lineup. Few people will be surprised by the selection of Mick Hannah — he’s fast, young, and likely won’t have the same sort of elan that Gracia has. In Deickmann, Cannondale gets an up-and-comer capable of throwing down the big moves in front of huge crowds.
Update (10 January 2006): The complete 2006 Cannondale mountain bike team has been listed over at Cannondale’s weblog.
1. Posted by More team signings for 2006 » The Biking Hub | 8:17 am, 22 December 2005
[…] Following up on my entry from a couple of days back that discussed some of the riders signed on to the Cannondale team for 2006 is some more news about who’s going where for next year. […]