PARIS – The Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project announced more top-name signings on Friday with the capture of German pair Linus Gerdemann and Fabian Wegmann and Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang.

In recent weeks the team, who will aim to win the Tour de France next year through brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, have signed a number of big names including Germany’s Jens Voigt and Italian sprinter Daniele Bennati.

Gerdemann was one of the many Milram team riders looking for a job after the team folded.

“Frankly, I am very excited to be racing with so many familiar faces once again,” said the German, who began his career with CSC before moving to T-Mobile and then Milram.

“I want to win stage races and win the Tour de France with the team.”

The versatile Wegmann is as comfortable on the tough one-day classics as on the Tour de France, and said: “I want to give my best to the team and be in top form for the Wallonian Classics, the Tour, Worlds and races like the Tour of Lombardy.”

Former mountain biker Fuglsang is one of several young talents to emerge in recent seasons, and has since won the Tour of Slovenia, the Tour of Denmark (twice) and finished third in the Tour of Switzerland.

“Obviously we have big expectations for Jakob. For me, he is one of the biggest talents in the sport,” team manager Kim Andersen said.

“Jakob had a fantastic first year racing at the ProTour level in 2009, and this year he gave the Schlecks good support in the Tour.

“He is a very complete rider and we now know how to tweak his off-season preparation so that he can arrive in the best possible shape for the coming season.”

Andy Schleck has finished runner-up in the Tour de France to Spain’s Alberto Contador the past two years, and will start as one of only a handful of favourites in 2011.

Contador is currently provisionally suspended and awaiting word on a possible sanction after testing positive for trace amounts of the banned weight loss/muscle-building drug clenbuterol.

Article: AFP