Loses top talent in Haselbacher, Siedler, and Dietziker The formerly Professional Continental Vorarlberg-Corratec team will take a step down in its UCI classification in order to return to racing after being suspended by the UCI.
The team reshuffled to come to terms with the UCI and a continental license turned out to be the best option: "I am very pleased that the problems are finally cleared, and we can do what we need to do: race," says new team manager Harald Morscher. Morscher, along with Gregor Gut, will take over the team manager position, while former manager, Thomas Kofler, will become the assistant team manager.
The resulting downgrade will allow the team into Austria's biggest race, which starts July 4th, the Tour of Austria, but without much of the firepower that made the team a solid underdog at the biggest races and saw the Austrian squad to a stage win at last year's Tour of Denmark by way of Sebastian Siedler.
The downgrade has seen four riders head for the hills. Andreas Dietziker relocated to the German NetApp squad, Silvere Ackermann retired, and finally, the team's two biggest talents: Rene Haselbacher and Sebastian Siedler are also leaving.
When presented with a new continental contract, Rene Haselbacher refused to sign: "I have not signed. I will continue to race, but without a team, and in the coming weeks I will know in what direction my sporting future will go. I will make contact with a number of different teams."
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