Not since Neil Stephens and Stephen Hodge in the late 1980s has an Australian raced for the Caja Rural Seguros RGA team. From 2017, Nick Schultz will become the third rider from down under to pull on the familiar green kit of the Spanish Pro-Continental squad.
A consistent season highlighted by a stage win at the Tour de l'Avenir helped the 22-year-old seal the deal but the fact that his contract wasn't down to one result was one of the more appealing factors in signing.
"They weren't just waiting for one really big breakthrough performance or anything in particular," Schultz told Cyclingnews of the move. "They saw potential, contacted me, showed a lot of interest and were really motivated. They saw a future with me in the team which is really reassuring for a rider when a team isn't just taking you based off one breakthrough result and are laying out a pathway, showing a lot of confidence."
Schultz started the season with SEG Racing but also rode with the U23 national team and earned a stagiaire ride with Orica-BikeExchange. The SEG team and structure allowed Schultz to "grow as a rider" and to "achieve the results I did this year". He praised the Continental team for playing an important role in, not only his 2016 season but also in securing the contract with Caja Rural.
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"I am incredibly grateful to SEG Racing Academy for providing me with plenty of opportunities throughout the season. After gaining both the staff and riders confidence after the win in Bretagne, everything continued to fall into place and I was able to really focus on my training provided by the team staff and prepare for specific targets. It was nice to be apart of an u23 team where I could set specific goals and know that the team would be backing me for a result. Their flexibility when it came to essentially riding for three teams at once for the second half of the season made a potentially stressful time, pretty calm and relaxed."
At the end of the 2015 season, Schultz told Cyclingnews that a successful season would be securing a professional contract for 2017. Asked if therefore he judged 2016 a success, Schultz explained the year "certainly surpassed my expectations and I basically succeeded in almost all of the targets I set out for myself and the team along the way. There is nothing much I can really complain about."
Central to Schultz's season was the Tour de l'Avenir, a race he debuted at last year and helped Jack Haig to second overall. His second appearance though was arguably a better vintage with a stage win, victory in the team classification, two riders in the top ten overall and the KOM jersey. However, the race was almost a right off for Schultz who explained that his dreams of riding GC went up in smoke on stage 6.
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