Oh that is really good to see them creating a team to support the development ranks in cycling. There are more teams that should support that cause. I'm surprised Giant-Alpecin and their previous iterations haven't had a continental team before. Oh wait...
So...they are re-launching their team? I wonder what happened...
Team manager Iwan Spekenbrink offered a nice quote to sum up the decision.
“We have explored the capacities of having a development team connected to our structure this past season, but found it not effective enough in developing our team structure as a whole to continue it for another season,” explained Team Giant-Shimano general manager Iwan Spekenbrink. (Velonews Oct. 3, 2014)Let's get this straight. They launch a development team in 2013 that only last for one season before hitting the grinder. They announce these talent days in a partnership with the BDR (German Cycling Federation) to promote German talent with male and female riders between 17 and 20 years old. The 2016 talent days are happening right now in the Eifel mountains. Days after that press release comes the announcement of these new development teams to help mold developing talent using all of the same experts as the pro squad.
Will we see another press release after the end of next year that they will be moving away from a development team model? Or is Alpecin sponsorship putting pressure on Spekenbrink to develop German talents, which then caused a flip-flop with his development team decision? In any case, it looks a bit ridiculous for him to be changing course so drastically in a relatively short period of time.
The real deal here is that Development Teams are going to be mandatory per UCI World Tour rules from 2018 on. Indeed, it was due to happen already in 2017. They probably had the structure to set up the feeder team in place and decided to go ahead anyway because Germany's biggest prospects (Kamna, Bokeloh, Schachmann...) are already being poached by other squads and they can't let go more riders like them.
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