While Saxo Bank will be losing a small army of its best riders to Team Luxembourg in 2011, it continues to have a strong hold on the young talent from Australia. 25 year old David Tanner will make the jump from the Continental ranks to the ProTour next season. A solid year with Fly V Australia, which has included stage wins at two of North America's hardest stage races, the Tour de Beauce and the Tour of Utah, has caught the eye of the ever watchful Bjarne Riis.
"David [Tanner] is a fantastic, mature, and powerful allrounder with a winner's instinct and team mentality that matches the team. Saxo Bank/SunGard is basically a good fit for him and I'm looking forward to taking part in developing his big talent," said the Saxo Bank boss in a team press release.
Tanner has had a circuitous rise to the top level of the sport. The Australian spent his U23 years putting together solid results in Europe with such great French development teams as VC Roubaix and VC La Pomme Marseille to such an extent that a stagiaire ride with the South African Barloworld team was his just reward at the end of 2008. The testing time was a short one and didn't amount to a contract, though he did manage a stellar 5th place result at the 1.1 GP Citta Camaiore. Instead of a hoped for debut season in Europe in 2009, he headed to America to race with a squad with a lot of hype and hope but only the tiniest amount of follow through: Rock Racing. After spending a quiet year with Rock, Tanner finally got a decent opportunity when he signed a contract with the rapidly upward moving Fly V Australia team. A solid season later, and he's now headed back to Europe to pick up where he left off in 2008.
"I'm very excited about this huge opportunity and obviously, coming to one of the best teams in the world is going to be an exciting experience and a great honor for me. I'm looking forward to working together with Bradley [McGee], Bjarne [Riis], and the rest of the staff and riders who can make me even stronger."