Schulze: "It's an honour to be here"

The soon-to-be 38-year-old André Schulze will be the veteran rider on Euskaltel next year as he joins from NetApp. The German was brought in partly to help the Basque sprinters on the team, but claims he still holds ambitions for himself as far as obtaining victories goes. Speaking to BiciCiclismo, the native of Görlitz in the east of Germany spoke of his 2013 aspirations.

"It's a great honour for me to be part of this team with such a great history and tradition", he said. "I'm motivated to achieve success for the team in the shape of, obviously, good results, but also in the shape of educating the young sprinters. It's very important to me to work with young talents, and I'd like to offer them advice and to share my knowledge with them. We can create a very good group of sprinters with the experienced and the young talented ones here. Helping the younger ones was one of the reasons Igor González de Galdeano brought me to this team - like I did this year at NetApp. Not only the state of form is important to sprinters, it's also about experience, putting yourself out there and believing in yourself. That's what I can help transmit to the younger ones. I was young once, and I know what's going through their heads. I can help them grow - that's what I like doing.

"(As for the upcoming season), I want to be in good shape right from the start of the year to win races and obtain top results for the team. I like all kinds of races as long as they're flat."

As one of nine mainly unpopular foreign signings, at least with the fans, Schulze has his work cut out for him if he wants to become a fans' favourite during what is considered to be a one-year stay in orange. Fortunately, though, he's aware of the team's unique history.

"Euskaltel Euskadi is a team with a family touch to it that works very seriously, as they've shown the last few years. I know their philosophy is to support the young Basque riders and Basque cycling in general. To do this, they've only signed Basques up until this year."

Schulze won't be the only German on the team next year as he's taking with him fellow speedster Steffen Radochla. The signing of Radochla baffled some, but Schulze is adamant they'll prove a success.

"We've been on the same teams in the past, and we've shown we can work together in an excellent way. That's important to me. In this day and age, you can't only have one sprinter in your ranks: you need one sprinter and one lead-out man. All sprinters need good riders to help them."

Photo:  www.live-radsport.ch