Matthew Teggart and Mark Downey are amongst the new signings for Team Wiggins for the 2018 season. They will join fellow Irish rider Michael O’Loughlin who remains with the team.
Both Teggart and Downey enjoyed very successful 2017 seasons. Teggart won Stage 3 of An Post Rás and also held the yellow jersey for a stage. He went on to finish 9th place overall. 2017 was his first season at UCI Continental level where he raced for the An Post Chain Reaction team. However, after the team was unable to find new sponsorship, he was left looking for a new team.
Downey meanwhile had an incredible season on both the road and track. In the 2016-2017 UCI Track World Cup, he won a gold medal in the Points Race in both the Cali and Apeldoorn rounds. He also won a gold medal in the Madison in the Los Angeles round where he partnered with Felix English.
On the road, he took three top ten placings in stages of the Tour de l’Avenir prior to finishing in 9th place at the U23 World Road Race Championships in Bergen. Downey raced for French team C.C.Etupes this year, having raced for V.C.Toucy and A.C. Bisontine previously.
Downey tweeted: “2018 just got real! Delighted to be joining @OfficialWIGGINS for next season really motivated to get stuck in now.”
Another exciting signing for the team is young British rider Tom Pidcock. The 18 year-old is currently racing the cyclocross season with Telenet–Fidea Lions and has taken a number of UCI Under-23 World Cup wins. Last season, he won both the UCI World Junior Championships and the UEC European Junior Championships. On the road, he took victory in the time trial at the UCI Junior Road World Championships, the British National Criterium Championships and Paris-Roubaix Juniors.
Amongst the other new signings announced by the team are British riders Jacques Sauvagnargue who won a stage of the Giro di Basilicata (2.1), Reece Wood and Mark Donovan.
