Maxime Monfort will leave his role as a luxury domestique at Radioshack to take up leadership at Lotto Belisol in 2014. The Belgian will target the Giro, the Vuelta and the Paris-Nice in his first year with his new team.
Maxime Monfort may not be a prolific winner but he is one of the most consistent riders on the WorldTour. After years of mostly sacrificing his own chances on some of cycling's major teams, he has taken the step to join Lotto Belisol where he will have more personal opportunities.
The match appears to be a perfect one as Lotto Belisol has been looking to strengthen the depth of their roster. Until now, they have mostly been reliant on Jurgen van den Broeck, Jelle Vanendert, André Greipel and Jurgen Roelandts, and when one of the four captains has not been in attendance, the team has mostly been trying to score results by getting into fruitless breakaways.
The team has not had much of a presence in recent Giros and Vueltas and is the main reason for their signing of Monfort. With van den Broeck still enjoying the role of Tour de France captain, Monfort will be the team's leader in the two minor grand tours.
However, that decision comes a no surprise for the new signing.
"I was warned before signing," he told Belga. "I knew what I was going into but it is true that I was surprised. Nevertheless, I have three beautiful goals in front of me: Paris-Nice, the Vuelta and the Giro. It is not bad."
Monfort is no stranger of going for GCs in grand tours as he finished 6th in the 2011 Vuelta while riding for Leopard-Trek. However, his big goals all belong to the future and for now he is mostly focused on the Etoile de Besseges which will be his second race of the season, coming just three days after Sunday's GP La Marseillaise.
"I always go to the start line with the intention of giving my best," he said. "I saying that, I admit that it gives a little more excitement to have been given the leadership role."
The Etoile de Besseges runs for 5 days and ends with an 11km time trial in Ales.
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