Giant press release
Germany on February 9 saw Giant's MTB squad kick off the 2006 season with their official team presentation and media launch. Racing for Giant 2006 will be former Olympic Champion Bart Brentjens of Holland and World Championship podium finisher and World Cup winner Roel Paulissen of Belgium. The two co-leaders will be backed by Great Britain triple national champion Oliver Beckinsdale, Austria's consistent challenger Martin Kraler and German Bundelisga 2005 winner Stefan Sahm.
"Our primary objective is to get a rainbow jersey from a World Championships," said team directeur sportif Sven Zeppel, "no matter what event it comes in, that's initially our main goal.
"Bart is the man of experience of the team, and has won virtually everything on offer, so we know we can rely on him. Raul can feed off that knowledge and at the same time is more open to different aims, with World Cups one key specialty. Martin, Stefan and Oliver will all have their own objectives throughout the season as well, with national champion jerseys one key 2006 goal. But there will be others--I know Oliver's training hard for the Commonwealth Games event in March, for example." Zeppel explained.
"The marathon rainbow jersey is the only one that's missing in my collection and that's the one I want the most in 2006," added Brentjens. "But I won't just be limiting myself to the World Championships, there are plenty of other races, like World Cups, where I want to show the fans what I'm capable of doing."
"As we've been doing for more than a decade now, Giant is delighted to continue backing a team of such great quality," said Giant Global Sport Marketing Manager Tom Davies. "It will enable us to remain at the cutting edge of MTB technology and racing."
The MTB team will be using both the reliable Hardtail and the new Anthem racing bikes, the latter featuring a further improvement of the NRS dual suspension technology which has proved so popular with riders of all categories. "It combines the same kind of efficiency in power terms we've worked so hard before to get with added comfort." emphasized Davies.
After racing in Cyprus with their national teams, Giant's first fully combined event will be the first event in the Liquigas Series in Italy on March 18. They then head for Curacao for the first World Cup event of the season on April 1.
GIANT MTB TEAM 2006
Oliver Beckinsdale...29 years old...United Kingdom
Bart Brentjens...37...Holland
Martin Kraler...29...Austria
Roel Paulissen...29...Belgium
Stefan Sahm...29...Germany
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