It took a long time and a lot of effort but finally Belgium team Unibet.com, riding under a Swedish licence, became part of the ProTour. However, even before the party started, manager Hanegraaf got knocked off his chair by the ASO, organiser of the Tour de France. Christian Prudhomme, who runs the show at the biggest yearly cycling event, claimed that even though Unibet now got recognised by the UCI as one of the twenty best cycling teams in the world, he will not extend an invitation to them for this Tour.


A slap in the face, after all the trouble Unibet went through to get into the ProTour, but then again, looking at their team, Unibet is indeed not one of the best in the ProTour. Even though they successfully managed to reel in a few strong riders it doesn’t seem very realistic to expect them to be able to compete with the other big teams for the duration of the season. Where Zanotti, Cooke, Casper (new, Cofidis) and Hunt will have to take care of the sprints, there are a few other fast men including Coyot (new, Cofidis), Gardeyn and Carrara who have a bit more in store then just a strong finish. However, these riders won’t scare the competition very much. They will undoubtedly finish top-ten every once in a while but as long as the fastest sprinters of the world are around chances for victory remain minimal.


If there’s one man who should be able to win it would be Rujano. Even though it might be a bit unfair to put this pressure on the small Venezuelan rider after his turbulent year, his results in the Giro of 2005 will be a cause for hope, especially considering his young age. Carlos Garcia Quesada could have offered him some support, but he was named in the Fuentes-scandal. The team managers no longer wish to work with him and Hanegraaf has decided not to allow Quesada to ride races, even though he still has a contract, as that might violate the clean image of Unibet.com.


The fact that Rujano is the only rider who can be expected to win a stage is exactly where the biggest challenge for Unibet lies. Besides a few strong riders like Peña, Larsson, Pasamontes and Ten Dam the team will have to hope for their other talented riders to show some real progression this year. Carrara has been around for a while and showed that he has some good stuff in store, just like Russian youngsters Kolesnikov and Khatuntsev and Belgian riders Vandenbergh and Jacobs, as well as Suray who expected a seat at Predictor-Lotto but was turned down as that team reached its limit of thirty riders, the limit for every Protour-team.


The people who left the team before the start of this saeson will, fortunately, not cause any big concerns for the team managers. Boucher, Coenen, Omloop, Van de Wouwer and the others are not the kind of riders they would have realised their Protour-ambitions with, and their investment in young talented riders is, in principal, a very good plan. However, Unibet lacks the older, more experienced riders who could push these talented riders to a higher level, making it almost impossible for this plan to work.


All things considered, the basis for this new team with its big ambitions seems to be rather fragile. Rujano, the only rider who has proven to be able to compete with the best, will have to carry his team the upcoming year. That will be a tough job for him considering his mental capabilities. If the Venezuelan rider doesn’t manage to fit into this fresh Belgian team, it might become quite a depressing year for Unibet.


New:
Matteo Carrara (Lampre-Fondital), Jimmy Casper, Arnaud Coyot (Cofidis), Markus Eichler (Team Regiostrom - Senges), Pieter Jacobs, Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet-Davo), Alexander Khatuntsev, Sergey Kolesnikov (Omnibike), Niels Scheuneman (Rabobank), Gustav Erik Larsson (Française des Jeux), Victor Hugo Peña (Phonak), José Rujano (Quickstep), Rigoberto Uran (Tenax), Troels Vinther (Glud & Marstrand), Michal Golas (neo)


Departed:
David Boucher, Frédéric Gabriël (Landbouwkrediet), Johan Coenen (Chocolade Jacques), Geert Omloop (Jartazi), Kurt van de Wouwer, Marco Serpellini (both retired), Camille Bouquet, Angel Castresana, Juan Carlos Dominguez, Petter Renäng (unknown), Bobbie Traksel (Palmans-Collstrop)