Kwiatkowski Joins Team Sky

Team Sky have named 2014 world road race champion Michal Kwiatkowski as their seventh and final signing for the new season.

The 25-year-old Pole will join the British squad from Etixx - Quick-Step on January 1.

Kwiatkowski is one of the most highly rated young talents in the sport, specialising in hilly one-day classics and week-long stage races.

As well as the claiming the rainbow jersey last year, he has also won the Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche and the Volta ao Algarve in his six-year professional career.

Kwiatkowski told teamsky.com: "Team Sky aim for the highest goals in cycling so I'm very happy that this move has become a reality.

"Sir Dave Brailsford believes in my ability, which gives me great confidence for next season, and I know that this team can help me raise my performance levels and win big races.

"The team's marginal gains philosophy really fits my approach to cycling and I have great respect for what this team has achieved in such a short time. I am excited and motivated to race for Team Sky next year."

Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford said: "Michal has performed fantastically well over the past couple of years. We have been following Michal's career for a long time. We tried to sign him four years ago, we tried to sign him two years ago, so this time we weren't going to miss out.

"We would like to think that we could add value to his career and offer him an opportunity to develop with Team Sky in both his one-day racing and stage racing.

"He is a future talent and he can keep getting better. His progression is what we are interested in and being part of that development."

Team Sky have not revealed the length of contract Kwiatkowski has signed.

They previously announced the signatures of Alex Peters, Gianni Moscon, Michal Golas, Danny van Poppel, Benat Intxausti and Mikel Landa.

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Sir Dave Hails Sir Bradley

Sir Dave Brailsford described Sir Bradley Wiggins as one of the best athletes in British sporting history after the 2012 Tour de France winner drew his Team Sky career to a close at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.

Wiggins attacked twice in the one-day cobbled classic but could not make it into the seven-man group that contested the sprint finish and eventually finished 31 seconds behind winner John Degenkolb in 18th.

The 34-year-old will now leave the British squad to join up with his new team, WIGGINS, and begin preparing for riding on the track at next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio.

It ends a professional relationship with Brailsford stretching back to 1998, during which time Wiggins has won four Olympic gold medals and became the first British winner of the Tour de France win 2012.

"We have been through a lot together and he has done an awful lot for British cycling and the whole of sport," Brailsford said. "When you consider his versatility, he has got to be right up there with one of the best athletes that the country has ever produced."

Wiggins attacked out of an elite group of favourites 32km from the finish of Paris-Roubaix and briefly built up a healthy lead, but he was then joined by three other attackers and the breakaway subsequently fell apart.

Brailsford admitted that when Wiggins accelerated, he believed it had the potential to be a winning move.

He added: "If you take a step back, the guy has won the Tour and won the Olympics and done everything he can, and there he was with 30km to go attacking on his own, and you think, 'Jesus, he might ride away from everybody'.

"That takes some doing and he should hold his head up high. He gave it a good old crack, like he always does."

Brailsford will now look to take Team Sky forward without Wiggins and believes Luke Rowe, who finished eighth, is a potential Paris-Roubaix winner who is ready to fill Wiggins' shoes. However, he admitted losing his talismanic team leader was a sad moment.

"It's emotional," he said. "These things comes to an end and you try to think of a nice way to end a sporting career. Do you step out at the top or do you become a fading light and drift away? We thought long and hard about it and decided this was a good way of doing it. It feels like a nice way to end."

Of Rowe, he added: "He is a very exciting prospect for the future. He has run eighth here so why can’t he come back and win it in the future one day? I’m sure he has got the capability."

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Sky Deignan in Giro Debut

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Philip Deignan will make his Grand Tour debut for Team Sky when the Giro d'Italia starts in Belfast next month.

Deignan, who joined Team Sky over the winter, was set back by a shoulder injury early in the season, but he is now ready for his first three-week race with the team and is part of a solid nine-man squad for the year's first Grand Tour.

The team also features Italian riders Dario Cataldo and Salvatore Puccio alongside Pete Kennaugh, Ben Swift, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Bernhard Eisel, Sebastian Henao and Kanstantsin Siutsou.

Australia star Richie Porte, who had been tabbed as the Giro team leader, was forced to withdraw from the race earlier this month after illness cost him precious preparation time - he will turn his attentions to supporting Chris Froome in his Tour de France repeat bid.

This year's race starts with three stages outside Italy, taking in Northern Ireland and Ireland and kicking off with a time trial in Belfast on Friday May 9.

The race will move on to Italy from May 13 with the last of the 21 stages in Trieste on June 1.

On confirming the line-up Team Principal, Sir Dave Brailsford, said: "The Giro d'Italia is a fantastic race and this year provides a great opportunity for the team to go out and really express themselves on the bike.

"We've brought together an exciting squad and we can't wait, not only for the start in Northern Ireland, but to perform in front of our Italian fans."

Deignan said: "As soon as I heard that the Giro d'Italia was starting in Northern Ireland it was a goal of mine to be there, and racing there with Team Sky is a real honour for me.

"We're going with a good balance of youth and experience; we're all looking forward to it. Growing up in County Donegal I never dreamt of riding a Grand Tour here in Ireland and this is my chance. I'm going to relish every minute of it racing in front of my friends and family."

And Cataldo added: "This will be my seventh appearance in the Giro d'Italia, so it is a race that has a place in my heart.

"The race has a great history in Italy and when I was growing up it was always a dream to ride in my home country.

"Without a doubt it was the race that inspired me to start riding a bike as a young boy, so for an Italian bike rider this is as good as it gets.

"We have a strong and exciting team going into the race and we're all looking forward to the challenge ahead. For me, going home to race is always a pleasure and I can't wait to get started."

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Froome Yet to Hear From Sir Bradley

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Chris Froome says he has yet to be congratulated by Sir Bradley Wiggins after his Tour de France win.

Froome succeeded his British team-mate as Tour champion to become the second successive Briton to win cycling's blue riband endurance road event.

When asked if he had heard from Wiggins yet, Froome said: "No, No I haven't."

Froome was in Holland and Belgium beginning a series of criteriums at the start of his victory parade across Europe before focusing again on the latter part of the season with his main target being the this year's World Championship road race in Florence on September 29.

The short rides are more about enjoyment and socialising and showing off his sequined yellow jersey as the Tour de France winner.

Froome rode in in Aalst, Belgium before Helmond in Holland and said of the Low Countries' crowds: "This is not normal, I hope it's just part of the post-Tour syndrome (and) it isn't going to be like that forever, hopefully.

"It's all a lot of fun. After the Tour, which was quite stressful, this is more of a laugh and a great atmosphere. The Dutch love cycling so it's a lot of fun."

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Wiggins Returns to Polish Action

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Sir Bradley Wiggins will make his return to racing at the Tour of Poland.

The 33-year-old 2012 Tour de France champion and four-timeOlympic champion has been named in Team Sky's squad for the race, which begins on Saturday.

Wiggins withdrew from May's Giro d'Italia with a knee injury and chest infection, which then ruled him out of the 100th Tour de France.

Team-mate Chris Froome inherited his Tour title in Paris last Sunday.

Wiggins is joined in the Team Sky squad by Britons Luke Rowe and Ben Swift, Colombian duo Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Uran and American Danny Pate.

The first stage takes place in Italy, with Krakow the finish seven days later.

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De Jongh Latest to Leave Team Sky

Steven de Jongh has left his role as sporting director at Team Sky after admitting taking performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

De Jongh, 38, is the third staff member to leave Team Sky in the last week.

The British team has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and has asked staff to sign a statement declaring they have had no previous involvement in doping.

"Steven deserves our respect for the courage he's shown in being honest," said team principal Dave Brailsford.

Sky race coach Bobby Julich left the team on Thursday after admitting to using the blood-boosting agent EPO when a rider.

Lead sports director Sean Yates, the 1992 British champion who guided Bradley Wiggins to the Tour de France title this year, left Sky on Sunday, although the team said his departure was not a result of their zero-tolerance anti-doping stance.

The 52-year-old is one of only five Britons to wear the yellow jersey and also won stages in the Tour and Vuelta a Espana in 1988.

Both Yates and Julich worked with disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong during their careers.

Yates rode with a young Armstrong at Motorola and, after moving into coaching, was reunited with Armstrong at Discovery in 2005, when the American won the last of his seven now-rescinded titles.

Armstrong and Yates also worked together in 2009 at Astana, when Armstrong finished third behind team-mate and winner Alberto Contador.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after a United States Anti-Doping Agency report described him as a "serial" doping cheat.

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Team Sky for Tiernan Locke

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Tour of Britain winner Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has signed for Team Sky on a two-year deal.

The 27-year-old impressed last season for former team Endura Racing with the highlight being his Tour of Britain victory in September.

Tiernan-Locke was the first British rider to win the event in 19 years.

"Although I've really enjoyed my time at Endura, I couldn't pass up the chance to join the world's best team," said Tiernan-Locke.

The Plymouth-born cyclist also won the Tour Mediterranean in 2012 and finished a commendable 19th for Great Britain at the World Road Race Championships in September.

"This season's results have given me a lot of confidence and I can't wait to compete at the very top of the sport. I'm under no illusions - it's going to be a big step up," he said.

"When you look at the season Team Sky have had, to even be considered by them was a massive honour for me, so I'm over the moon to be riding for them in 2013."

In 2005, Tiernan-Locke was struck down with a virus that forced him out of the sport and he opted to go to university before returning to cycling in 2008.

Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford says the sport will now see the best of Tiernan-Locke.

"We believe he is in the best place to achieve his full potential and are looking forward to having him on the team," said Brailsford.

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