Lars van der Haar (NED), winner of two of the five World Cup races so far this cyclo-cross season, is to miss Tuesday's bpost bank trophee race in Loenhout, Belgium. The recent winner of the Heusden-Zolder race is to focus on fully recovering from a cold picked up following yesterday's race in Diegem.
Team Giant-Shimano this week held its first Fan Day, in cooperation with several of the team's partners at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion in The Netherlands.
Team Giant-Shimano is to put more emphasis on the global talent pool, with a focus on German talent, as it moves away from having a Development Team to bring on young riders.
Team Giant-Shimano lines-up for the first of two Italian races this week, at Milano-Torino on Wednesday.
A young team heads to the one-day race, including 22-year-old Lawson Craddock (USA), 21-year-old Daan Olivier and also 20-year-old stagiaire Steven Lammertink (NED).
As of January 2015, Alpecin will become a new major sponsor of international professional cycling team, Team Giant-Shimano. After its renaming to Team Giant-Alpecin, a team with a German partner will be present in cycling’s highest tier for the first time in five years.