Cycling: Boom! Two surprising press releases fluttered in this Monday morning. First, the Belgian racing team Etixx-QuickStep announced the termination of the contract with its German manager Rolf Aldag and shortly afterwards the announcement followed that Aldag Mark Cavendish will join Team Dimension Data (formerly MTN-Qhubeka).
Hardly anyone expected that. Very surprisingly, Etixx-QuickStep announced the immediate termination of the contract of the previous manager Rolf Aldag in a very short and sober message this morning. There was a cloak of silence about reasons and further planning, only that the step was taken by mutual consent was revealed. After that, speculation broke out across the web and there were quite a few voices that speculated that Aldag could follow his companion and protégé Mark Cavendish to Team Dimension Data. Just under an hour later, the South African ProContinental team ended the speculation and announced the manager's immediate commitment.
Officially, the German ex-professional will play the role of performance manager, but with the commitment the course of the second division player should finally be clear: It should go into the WorldTour as soon as possible. Dimension Data also reunites Aldag with Mark Cavendish - the German-British duo previously worked together on Team HTC Highroad. Aldag himself had his say in the announcement and is looking forward to the new tasks and challenges: "I'm looking forward to playing an active role at Qhubeka and I hope to be able to contribute something to the sporting success of the team."
Then we wish you every success!