Roel Paulissen: Back on Cannondale for 2007

After a couple of years with Giant, Belgian rider Roel Paulissen will be back on a Cannondale for the 2007 season. He’s signed a
two-year agreement with the Dutch-registered Cannondale-Vredestein Mountain Bike Racing Team. Paulissen last raced aboard a Cannondale in the 2003 and 2004 seasons as a member of the Siemens-Cannondale team.

The 30 year old has had a good 2006 – a bronze medal in the World Cup mountain bike marathon, the Belgian marathon national title, and a seventh overall in both the World Cup cross country ranking and the UCI final individual ranking. The two-year deal means that he’ll be with Cannondale-Vredestein when the Olympics come round in 2008.

“With Paulissen, we have landed a world class racer who can certainly lend the team an extra impetus,” said team manager Jan ten Tusscher.

Racing alongside Paulissen will be New Zealander Kashi Leuchs and Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff, who finished third in the cross country World Cup. Also on Cannondale is Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang, winner of the 2005 Espoir World Cup.