As stagiaire contracts are about to come into effect for the season, one thing that is noticeable is the amount of familiar names that have signed these trainee contracts.
French rider Rayane Bouhanni, is set to line up for Cofidis where his brother, the top sprinter Nacer, plies his trade. Bouhanni had a great final season as a junior, claiming a lot of big wins, but hasn’t had many results of note this year, with his team AWT-Greenway. The first race for Bouhanni will be La Poly Normande (1.1).
Another French rider, Valentin Madouas, also has cycling in his blood. He is the son of Laurent who had a long and successful career with the likes of Z, Castorama, Lotto and Festina. Valentin will race for Bretagne – Séché Environnement for the remainder of the season.
Antwan Tolhoek from the Netherlands will be racing for Tinkoff-Saxo and he is set to line up with the team in the Arctic Race of Norway. Amongst his best results this season is the mountains classification in Le Tour de Bretagne Cycliste trophée harmonie Mutuelle (2.2). His father, Patrick, raced for Superconfex and Buckler in the ’80s and ’90s.
Frederik Frison is joining Lotto Soudal and one of his first races is the Tour of Denmark. Frison’s second cousin Herman, had a successful career in the ’80s and ’90s, taking a stage win in the ’87 Tour and also Ghent-Wevelgem in 1990.
19 year-old Joury Ottenbros, who raced in the Rás Mumhan in Ireland this year, is going to line up with Parkhotel Valkenberg CT. His grandfather, Harm, was World Road Race champion back in 1969.
Finally, Julien Bernard, will be racing with Trek Factory Racing for the remainder of the season, and will line up in the The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. The Frenchman is the son of Jean-Francois, who was tipped as a potential winner of the Tour de France back in the ’80s. Amongst Jean-Francois’ most memorable wins was the time-trial on Mont Ventoux in the 1987 Tour de France.
It will be interesting to see how these guys get on.
