News: Metaltek –Knights Of Old Racing Team

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New line up, new name for 2013 as Metaltek – Knights of Old Racing team announces their line up and sponsors for the year ahead.

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Having made an impressive impact to the British cycling road scene for 2012, finishing 3rd overall in the British Cycling Team rankings as Metaltek-Scott, the team has now attracted current partner Knights of Old as a title sponsor.

This extra investment has secured growth and depth to the squad of riders and the team as a whole, allowing them to be serious contenders throughout the race calendar, which will include Premier Calendar, National A events, Halfords Tour Series (invitation pending), Elite Circuit Series, as well as races across Europe.

Ian Beattie, Managing Director, Knights of Old said: “We are excited to be entering into year two with Metaltek. Our partnership with the team last year gave us a great start to our mission of promoting road safety amongst our drivers, staff and local schools.”

“We only scratched the surface last year of what this partnership can provide and we are looking forward to continuing on this journey. As employers we will always have to think about safety, health and nutrition and the workshops the team helped start with our staff, need to continue so that we can have a safe and healthy workforce.”

The new squad will include a wealth of experience and talented up and coming young riders. Dale Appleby remains with the team from 2012 after a great showing at the UCI An Post Ras. One new name joining Metaltek-Knights of Old is a former medallist in the British Circuit Race Championships Tom Murray who will be looking to make an impact in the Premier Calendar and circuit races.

2012_Murray_TourSeries

Above: Tom Murray racing in the Tour Series

“It feels very a friendly team as Andy’s enthusiasm rubs off on everyone else, a more close knit team” says Tom. “It has quite high ambitions and wants to drive the team forward. Got a good line up and excited by the challenge to help the team go forward. Hopefully I will get more of a free role to get some results.”

“What I am looking forward to mostly is having a definite race programme. Last year I struggled in not hitting my top form in the way I did in 2011, where I concentrated on what I could do well in and trained for that and did pretty well like the crit nationals.”

“Last year though we were fighting on so many different fronts, and shuffled around, I never really got a set target to ride towards and that was perhaps reflected in the results not being as good as the year before.”

Tom’s joined by other riders adding strength to the teamsuch as Kit Gilham and Dave McGowan. Young Under 23 rider Adam Martin joins the team for 2013, showing he’s one to look out for, having just been selected to represent Great Britain at the World Cyclo-Cross Championships in February.

The team will continue to be managed by Andy Swain, owner of Metaltek Engineering Solutions, a CNC engineering company in Melton Mowbray and assisted by Rachel Paling, who comes from a family of National Champions and Tour riders.

Equipment
The team have attracted KUOTA who has supplied them with the Kuraro. These will be decked out with SRAM Red components and Spinergy wheels. USE continue their support with their high quality components of bars and stems to complete the bikes.

Nutrition and energy products come courtesy of High 5 and BEET IT. Continental will provide the grip in tyres and tubulars. PACTIMO have supplied the team kit as they look to expand their excellent custom clothing business into the UK and Ireland.

The team has also secured backing from several companies outside of the cycling industry including WNT and Paddy & Scott’s Coffee. The team will be in Portugal for their training camp courtesy of Slipstream tours whilst Kinetic Velo will oversee bike fitting and conditioning.

Andy Swain, Team Manager said on announcing the team: “We are humbled by the extra support and investment made to the team for 2013 from all sponsors, after a lot of hard work and determination in 2012.

We look forward to developing the increased partnership to the team by Knights of Old and welcome their commitment as an employer to road safety and awareness which is a national on-going campaign. As we enter our second year, we are excited by the potential of the new squad, and everyone throughout the team shares the same passion and desire for success. We cannot wait to start racing.”

2013 Riders
Dale Appleby
Chris Bartlett
Will Fox
Dexter Gardias
Kit Gilham
Tom Last
Gruff Lewis
Rhys Lloyd
Adam Martin
Dave McGowan
Tom Murray
Rob Orr
Matt Pilkington
Robert Smail
Ben Stockdale

 

 

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