Team Sky has signed another young talent, announcing the arrival of British 21-year-old Chris Lawless on Friday.
Lawless, who currently rides for the Axeon Hagens Berman development team, follows Egan Bernal, Pavel Sivakov, and Kristoffer Halvorsen in turning pro with the British WorldTour team in 2018.
Like those three, he was a stage winner at the recent Tour de l’Avenir, springing a late attack to deny Halvorsen and the rest of the bunch sprinters on stage 4. He won the ZLM Tour one-day race in April and in June he finished runner-up behind Steve Cummings in the British national championships road race, sealing the U23 crown in the process.
ADVERTISEMENT
“One of my main reasons for joining Team Sky is that I feel it’s going to be the best place for me to develop as a rider,” said Lawless in a statement from the team.
“I’ve had a good 2017 so far. The overall win at the ZLM Tour and the stage win at Tour de l’Avenir were both really big wins for me. I was happy with the way I won them. It’s not how I usually win races. I attacked instead of waiting for the sprint, which I think showed I can do more than just finish quickly. The other highlight was obviously the British nationals and winning the under-23 jersey. I was happy to be able to compete with the other WorldTour guys there and I was still able to attack and show my pace at the end.
“I want to improve in every area. I’m hoping to become a more all-round bike rider and Team Sky is going to be the best place for me to do that.”
Lawless is Sky’s sixth signing of the transfer window – David de la Cruz and Jonathan Castroviejo are the other two – and further evidence of an investment in youth at Sky, who last year gave neo-pro contracts to Tao Geoghegan Hart, Owain Doull, and Jon Dibben.
“We first saw Chris a couple of years back and he is someone we’ve been keeping an eye on,” said Sky’s performance manager Rod Ellingworth.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2eLMHS9
No comments:
Post a Comment