Having endured a testing season last year when the Covid-19 pandemic hit its development as a new Continental team, EvoPro Racing is back in the pro peloton and gets its 2021 season underway this weekend.
The team enjoyed a very successful first season in 2019, picking up a string of wins, and while it looked to capitalise on that last year, the pandemic hit it hard as a fledgling project.
Thankfully it has weathered the storm of 2020 and is back again for this season, with a bunch of riders signed including some Irish names that will be well known to stickybottle readers.
Irish track international Fintan Ryan is on board as is
Irish road international Michael O’Loughlin; two new signings for the year
ahead.
Irish cyclocross international Sean Nolan is back again,
as is Ben Walsh, the former winner of the Junior Tour of Ireland.
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News that the team is continuing will come as a relief to
Irish cycling which has lost both An Post-Chainreaction and Aqua Blue Sport in
recent years, while some of the biggest races in the country are also looking
for sponsors.
The team’s founders, former national champion and ex pro Morgan Fox and former Cycling Ireland president JP Nolan, remain at the helm. They are joined by Tim Meeusen as DS, a former pro with Fox at Tönissteiner-Colnago.
We’ll have more from Fox shortly about the team’s plans
for the year ahead, including news of a new headline sponsor and a full range
of other backers.
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The team, which starts its season tomorrow, Sunday, at Grote prijs Jean Pierre Monseré (1.1) in Belgium, is a truly international squad for the year ahead.
It has a mix of up and coming developing talents and some very experienced campaigners who have raced at WorldTour level.
Dutch rider Wouter Wippert (30), who has raced for Cannondale Drapac in the past, is back again for his third year with the Irish team, having taken three of its wins in 2019.
Sean Nolan in international cyclocross action, Ben Walsh riding TT at the Worlds and Wouter Wippert winning for EvoPro in 2019 (Photos by Sean Rowe)
Belgian Michael Van Staeyen (30), who has ridden for
Cofidis during his career, has signed for EvoPro and should be a great asset having
taken wins in Etoile de Bessèges and the Tour of Demark.
Also signed for the team is 2018 US road race champion
Jonny Brown, formerly of Axeon Hagens Berman, as well as fellow American Brendan Rhim (25), who previously rode for Hincapie Giant and won Canada’s Tour de Beauce in 2019.
Current Brazilian
national champion Vitor Zucco Schizzi (23) is also back again for a full season after the pandemic-hit
campaign last year, alongside Estonian powerhouse Oskar Nisu (26), who has
medaled twice in his national TT championships.
Spanish rider Berant Font (27) is also back again as is Cyrus Monk (24), the former Australian U23 road race champion and Belgian breakaway specialist Jeroen Eyskens.
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