Jure Kocjan will wear the Lupus Racing Team jersey in 2016. The Slovenian rider, who has spent two years with SmartStop, stays at the Continental level even if he won a stage at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah.

"We're very excited to have him. We spent much of September and October trying to figure out who would end up being on the sharp end of the closeout, and we're delighted with the guy we ended up getting", general manager Brendan Sullivan told Cyclingnews. "The objective all along has been a little bit of the Jack Welch, you know, to keep the strongest riders and then each year add five or six stronger riders. We hope to secure invites to the major North American races this year. Hopefully strengthening our team will at least support our chances of that. But that's really been the objective."

Chad Beyer, Winston David, Mathieu Jeannes, Bryan Lewis, Barry Miller, Evan Murphy, Mike Olheiser, Nicolae Tanovitchii and Thomas Vaubourzeix will complete the 2016 roster.

This team wants to attract attention for a foundation. "Fundamentally, we're a racing team. We wouldn't exist if there wasn't a race. The second part of that is to raise awareness for Lupus. My wife is a 20-year sufferer, so that was the catalyst initially, to raise awareness of the autoimmune disease and do it through racing.

"So, in theory, if we get better and get bigger results, more people will learn about the disease, and hopefully then more people will get involved with the Lupus Foundation of America or the Lupus Research Institute and increase the funding towards a drive to find a cure. That's the hope."