Belgian footballer Timmy Simons will create a new continental team for the 2014 season which will be involved in both road and cyclo-cross races. Omega Pharma-Quick Step sports director will work for the team during the off-road season while Kevin Hulsmans, Rob Ruijgh and Kevin Peeters are likely to be the main stars on the road team.

At a time where several cycling teams are folding, there is finally some good news for the many riders that are currently without a contract for the 2014 season. Belgian footballer Timmy Simons has combined forces with current Omega Pharma-Quick Step sports director Wilfried Peeters to create a new continental team for the coming season.

Simons is a fifty percent shareholder in Belgian real estate company Vastgoedservice and according to Het Laatste Nieuws, he and fellow shareholder Geert Vanhoof have decided to invest in a cycling project of their own. The team would be involved in both road cycling and cyclo-cross.

"With the crisis in cycling there are many free riders ," Simons toldVTM.  "So we thought it was a great opportunity to start a new road and cyclo-cross team. We have a budget for 15 riders."

Peeters will continue his work at Omega Pharma-Quick Step but will be the director at cyclo-cross races during the winter.

"That [working as an Omega Pharma-Quick Step director] remains my main job all year long," he told Sporza. "This new team I will work with mainly in the winter, during the cyclo-cross season. At first they just wanted to focus on cyclo-cross, but due to the crisis in road cycling we were also able to establish a continental team."

Cyclo-cross riders Rob Peeters, Joeri Adams, Jens Adams and Yannick Peeters have all been linked with the new team while Rob Ruijgh (Vacansoleil), Kevin Hulsmans (Vini Fantini) and Kevin Peeters (Crelan) could be some of the stars on the road team.