Following on from the recent announcement that Campbell Flakemore was walking away from his contract with BMC Racing, the 23 year-old has now been included on the roster for the Australian JML Racing team for the 2016 season.
Flakemore had a difficult season this year having broken his collarbone in the Tour Down Under and started to question his decision to turn pro.
“It wasn’t something that happened overnight,” the former U23 World Time Trial champion told News Corp last month. “Even last year I was umming and ahhing whether to go another season, then you get a professional contract and it’s pretty hard to turn down.”
“I haven’t got any plans (to keep riding), maybe after 12 months. I’ve ridden my bike once in the last 10 weeks so I haven’t really got any drive to do it.”
“Living overseas, missing things back home, it was bloody hard to step up to WorldTour and probably doing my collarbone was the beginning of the end, maybe I was already not quite up to it and then to do that set myself even further back,” he explained. “It was something I owed to myself and sadly it didn’t work out but I’m happy.
However, it seems that he has returned to the bike sooner than anticipated. JML Racing team have Henk Vogels as their Director of Performance and they have targeted the National Road Series for 2016. The team will first be in action at the 2016 Mars Cycling Australia Road National Championships.
Vogels brings a wealth of experience to the team. The Perth rider previously raced for the likes of Gan and Davitamon-Lotto and finished in 2nd place in Ghent-Wevelgem in 2003 in addition to two top ten places in Paris-Roubaix.
I think he made a brilliant decision