WILKINSON AND PARTRIDGE ADDED TO HALFORDS BIKEHUT

National road race champion Rob Hayles is set to be joined by SIS-Trek's Ian Wilkinson and Rapha-Condor's Rob Partridge in the expanded Halfords Bikehut team next season, Cycling Weekly understands.

Last year Hayles and Tom Southam rode for Halfords in the British domestic races. While Southam has moved to Rapha-Condor, Welsh rider Rob Partridge, who was third overall at the Ras in Ireland in May, travels in the opposite direction.

Partridge, 23, was seventh overall in the Premier Calendar, and was second overall at the Girvan stage race, where he also won a stage.

Wilkinson, 29, (pictured in the orange leader's jersey at the Bikeline Two-Day) won two stages at the Bikeline Two-Day at the start of the season and was ninth in the East Midlands Cicle Classic.

His team-mate at SIS-Trek, Ian Bibby, also joins Halfords Bikehut and will combine mountain biking and road racing.

The riders who are set to race for Halfords Bikehut on the road next season are: Rob Hayles, Ed Clancy (from Landbouwkrediet), Andy Tennant and Mark McNally (from the British Cycling Academy), Ian Wilkinson (from SIS-Trek) and Rob Partridge (from Rapha-Condor). There may be one more rider still to be confirmed.

On the road, the team will be directed by Keith Lambert, the 61-year-old Yorkshireman who used to manage Banana-Falcon, Brite and Linda McCartney.

Ian Bibby, David Fletcher and one other will compete in mountain bike events with some outings on the road.

And Sharon Laws, the former endurance mountain biker who made a huge impact during her first full road season, continues in Halfords Bikehut colours.

Meanwhile, the full CandiTv-Pinarello team for 2009 will be:

Russell Downing, Malcolm Elliott, Peter Williams, Lee Davis, Matt Kipling, Andrew Roche, Graham Briggs (from Rapha-Condor), James Sampson (from Kinesis), Dale Appleby (from Rapha-Condor).

RELATED LINKS

Hayles to lead expanded Halfords squad

Keith Lambert to manage Halfords squad