[Cyclisme] Tom Wirtgen returns to Austria

The Luxembourg rider who rode in Global 6 Cycling’s third division this season will join the Felt-Felbermayr team in 2024.

As was the case last year, the fate of Tom Vertgen (27 years old) was decided in December regarding his assignment for the following season. A year ago, when he was at the end of his contract with Belgian club Bingol (where he spent five seasons), he signed in December with the Global 6 Cycling Team, a continental (third tier) team flying the New Zealand flag and with ten different nationalities.

Furthermore, Global 6 Cycling, as we knew a month ago, has recruited Luxembourg’s Loïc Bettendorff pending further signings, since it will obtain a Luxembourg license in 2024, it will be called Global 6 United.

At this moment the moves are being made in this very poignant third section. Even more so in Luxembourg with the announced disappearance of the leopard this fall.

Coming back to Tom Vertgen, the continuation of his career was not clear because in September, during the Tour of Luxembourg, he confessed his feelings to us. “If it continues, I will be happy, and if it does not continue, I will have no regrets!” he said, before adding that at Global 6 Cycling, he rediscovered the passion for cycling that he had lost over the years in the world. Second division league.

Even if he does not confirm the news, he will return again to the Welt-Felbermayr team, a strong Austrian team where the Austrian climber Ricardo Zuidel is the leader of the route at the age of 35. Among the 14 riders competing in this continental peloton, we also find German Miguel Heidemann (ex-B&B) who will ride Leopard in 2023.

Tom Vertgen, who finished the season well in 2023 on the routes of the Tour of Sibiu or the Tour of Britain, will no doubt want to show that he still has some good cards to play.

He also noted that his team, Welt-Felbmayer, had just suffered a traumatic incident on the way to its December training camp (located in Zadar, Croatia), since a car containing two racers was violently hit at a red light by a drunk driver. Three contestants were seriously injured, two of whom left the Croatian hospital where they were examined. The Austrian team did not reveal the names of the riders involved.