Classics star set to bolster Bjarne Riis' team but is still waiting on Quick Step
Nick Nuyens will announce his 2011 destination this weekend, but is almost certain to sign for Saxo Bank-Sungard, his agent Jef Van Den Bosch told Het Laatste Nieuws. The “Bom Van Bemel” has been with the Dutch Rabobank team for two, largely unsuccessful, seasons but has been subject to interest from a number of teams for next year.
“It’s 90% certain that Nick is off to the Saxo Bank [Sungard] team of Bjarne Riis and Alberto Contador,” said Van Den Bosch, “His contract is complete. We were stalling until we knew whether Fabian Cancellara would be continuing [with the team], but we can’t wait.”
“Only Patrick Lefevere and Quick Step could make him hesitate,” he added.
Nuyens spent four years with Lefevere’s Quick Step team, as well as a few months as a stagiere with Domo-Farm Frites, its previous incarnation. He left in 2007 to join Cofidis so that he could play more of a leadership role in the classics, where he’d previously been a lieutenant to Tom Boonen, but has not enjoyed the same kind of success since.
The three-time winner of the GP Wallonie expressed a preference for a return to the team with whom he started his career. Lefevere is currently in negotiations with a number of potential co-sponsors for 2011 though, and is unable to make a concrete offer to his former rider.
Should Riis manage to secure the services of Nuyens it would be a boost to a team that has seen its classics team decimated by an exodus of riders. Many are following the Fränk and Andy Schleck to their new Luxembourg team, but cobble-specialist Matti Breschel is bound for Rabobank (in what would be a straight swap for Nuyens). There is also remaining uncertainty over the plans of Ronde van Vlaanderen and two-time Paris-Roubaix winner Cancellara, although he is under contract with Riis for 2011.