Lucas Sebastian Haedo will make his return to American racing, after last riding on US soil at the Continental level in 2009. In 2015, he will wear the colours of Jamis-Hagens Berman.

“We wanted a sprinter like him for next year and we were able to reach an agreement with him very quickly,” said Sebastian Alexandre, the team’s director. “Sebastian is not a pure sprinter, but he is a very fast sprinter, and his speciality is to sprint amongst a reduced group of 30 to 50 riders. He will be able to go over the climbs at the bigger races and stay with the first group, and be one of the fastest guys at the end.”

Having raced under Alexandre before, for Colavita-Sutter p/b Cooking Light in 2008 and 2009, he headed to Saxo Bank in the WorldTour in 2010 and raced at the highest level until this year, where he rode for Skydive Dubai. His older brother, Juan Jose, rode with Jamis-Hagens Berman in 2013 and 2014 before retiring at the end of this year.

“We only kept riders who could compete at the level of the UCI races that we are planning on doing,” Alexandre said. “I also preferred to reduce the number a little bit in order to provide more days of competition to each rider. The US schedule is not that big and I wanted to give enough racing to everyone.”

Haedo has been brought in to target stages and top fives in races like the Tours of California, Utah and Colorado, as well as trying to win races in the National Racing Calendar. The only race Jamis-Hagens Berman will take part in outside of the US in 2015 is the Tour de San Luis in Haedo’s home country of Argentina.

However, there is no guarantee that the team will be invited to America’s biggest stage races, the need to rely on wild card invites. When asked if he thinks his team has a good chance of competing in all three, Alexandre said. “Definitely, I think we have a great team. I expect to be invited to the big races because I think I have the team for it.”