STEPHEN CUMMINGS SIGNS FOR BARLOWORLD

British pro Stephen Cummings has this week signed for the Barloworld team. Cummings will join fellow GB team pursuiter Geraint Thomas, at the Italian based, British registered team in 2008.

The move comes after the demise of the American Discovery Channel team, where Cummings has ridden this year, following the team?s failure to secure a new sponsor.

Although Cummings is stepping down from a ProTour to a Professional Continental team, officials at British Cycling had moved quickly to secure Cummings a new contract after both the Discovery and Unibet.com teams announced their intentions to cease operations, flooding the transfer market with out of work riders.

And with Barloworld looking to expand after their performance at this year?s Tour de France ? where they won the King of the Mountains competition as well as two stages ? their race programme should include most ProTour events.

Cummings will again look to ride the Tour of Italy next year, before returning to the British team to prepare for the team pursuit at the Olympics in August. Bradley Wiggins is likely to follow a similar programme.