The German squad BIKE AID can look forward to three riders in the coming season, who will strongly improve the current team in terms of quality. With Frederik Dombrowski, a very good climber joins the team, who won the German Mountain Climbing Championship in 2015 and showed his strongest season so far in the past 2019 season. With third place in the overall classification in the difficult Tour de Guadeloupe (UCI 2.2, FRA), he showed his climbing skills as well by winning the queen stage.
At the German national championships at the Sachsenring, he came in 15th after a brutal race over 181 km and was one of the few riders to finish.
“We have been in contact with Fred for a long time already, but somehow it never worked out in the end. Now is the right time for both sides and we are happy that we will have another super strong climber in the team next year with Fred. Especially in very tough races, we had deficits and not so many riders that we could rely on. Fred will close this gap and we are convinced that he can help us enormously”, said Timo Schäfer, Team Manager at BIKE AID.
With Jesse de Rooij from the Netherlands, a still young rider joins the German team. At just 20 years old, he will be the youngest rider on the team next year, but he has a lot of confidence.
“We met Jesse at the Tour of Poyang Lake, where he started as a stagiaire for us. He fitted in really well and, despite only being 20 years old, took on responsibility in the race and even spoke out- we were impressed. Our performance in 2019 was not a good one, especially in one-day races, and we want to change that with Jesse“, explains Timo Schäfer.
Jesse de Rooij was Dutch 2nd in Nationals in the Netherlands during his junior years and already 8th in the U23, which speaks for his qualities in difficult races in Europe and above all his potential.
Last but not least, Clint Hendricks, will wear the BIKE AID jersey. The South African, who finished third at the Commonwealth Games in 2018, was already a stagiaire at BIKE AID at the end of 2018 and delivered very good results, such as a stage win at the Tour of Singkarak. However, they only found each other again via a detour and so Clint Hendricks will be at the start for BIKE AID from 2020:
“I am happy that this transfer has worked out. I would have loved to ride for BIKE AID already this year, but the opportunity didn't open up yet. So I'm all the happier that it has now worked out. I know the atmosphere in the team and that is unique. I'm looking forward to a great 2020”, said Hendricks.
Team manager Timo Schäfer is also enthusiastic when he talks about Hendricks: “Clint is an incredibly good racer. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to show himself to a World Tour team so far, he surely has the ability. In the end, we did everything we could to make Clint signed on BIKE AID for 2020. Unfortunately, due to some unexpected structural difficulties, we couldn't get him to us already in early 2019, but we're all the happier now. He will enrich our squad a lot. "