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Thursday, November 20, 2008 Pevenage, LaPage new Directors for Rock Racing by VeloNation Press at 2:21 PM EST   comments Categories: Pro Cycling   Rock Racing has hired cycling veterans Rudy Pevanage as a Director Sportif and Laurenzo LaPage as an Assistant Director. “Without a doubt, we have two of the most experienced director sportifs that cycling has produced in the last 20 years,” Rock Racing Team Owner Michael Ball said. “Rudy built a dynasty with the powerful Telekom and T-Mobile teams, while Laurenzo comes to us from Astana, a team that has won three of the past five Grand Tours.” Both hailing from Belgium where cycling is king, Pevanage and LaPage both have proven track records when it comes to managing a professional cycling team. “With these two heading up our team, Rock Racing will have the infrastructure to compete against the very best,” Ball said. “The caliber of riders on the bike will be matched by brilliant leadership behind the scenes.” Pevanage, 54, was the mentor of cycling great Jan Ullrich until both of their careers were uprooted by Operation Puerto allegations. Pevanage was himself a former professional cyclist from 1976 to 1988. During his career he won more than two dozen races which include a time trial stage in the 1985 Giro d'Italia, and the second stage of the 1980 Tour de France while on his way to winning the points classification. LaPage, 42, raced professionally from 1989 to 2002. He was a part of the Team Discovery Channel staff for Lance Armstrong's 6th and 7th wins in the Tour de France. Ball said while Rock Racing fans can expect the team’s familiar flamboyant approach in 2009, there will be some changes that are not so noticeable that will include a more comprehensive internal anti-doping program. “We are spending more money this year to hire the best riders and the best staff that go along with being one of the top professional cycling teams in the world,” he said. “We are also investing a lot of time, energy and money in 2009 on increased anti-doping measures through Scott Analytics.”       comments Follow @Pro_Cycling Tweet Subscribe via RSS or daily email Contact the editor about this article