Back to Home Pagecycling utah October 1999
The United States Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, coming off its victory in the Tour de France this summer, has announced the addition of five riders to its 2000 roster.
Joining the team will be Cedric Vasseur of France, Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov, Patrick Jonker of Australia, American Levi Leipheimer and Steffen Kjaergaard of Norway.
Marty Jemison, Park City, is also a member of U.S. Postal.
Leipheimer, 25, turned pro in 1997 and has been a member of the Saturn team the last two seasons. A solid climber and time trailist, Leipheimer won the U.S. National Time Trial this year along with Canada's Tour de Beauce stage race. He earned a silver medal in the time trial at the Pan Am Games, and had two top three stage finishes at the Trans-Canada stage race.
"We have had our eye on Levi for a while and feel he is ready to step up into our program," Gorski added.
Utah road racer Jeff Louder, who has trained and raced the last two seasons in Belgium in the "elite" category, will turn pro with a European team for the 2000 season.
Louder signed with Tonissteiner-COLNAGO, a tier II team based in Belgium.
At this time, there are 18 Americans riding full-time in Europe, half of whom are on the U.S. Postal Service team.
Louder will leave for Belgium Jan. 16 and travel to Spain for training camp and begin the racing season mid-February.
While racing in Belgium this last season Louder entered 55 races, winning three while finishing in the top 10 in 28 races.
-Bill Harris
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