Tim Elverson thanked the Tour de Yorkshire for BIKE Channel Canyon’s invite and vowed: We won’t let you down.
Britain’s newest UCI Continental outfit were today named among the 18 teams to ride the three-day UCI 2.1 stage race next month.
The squad will roll out of Bridlington shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Team Sky, BMC, Katusha and Orica-Scott on Friday, April 28.
Elverson admitted the announcement ended a nervous wait for his team, which has only been in existence for four months.
The sports director, who suffered heartbreak last season when his Pedal Heaven team was left out of the Europe Tour race, said:
“It is brilliant news. It is nice to get that recognition from the Tour de Yorkshire and ASO that we are a team who deserve to be in there.
“With Chris (Opie), we obviously have someone who has had results there before and that will have been recognised.
“But hopefully the fact we are getting involved in other races, have done our bit in Holland and have a good social media following will have all added to the equation.
“Now we need to go there, race well and show why we have been selected. We will have a couple of angles and we will have to work out which stage might suit us best to get an absolute result.
“But we will have a GC thing going on and we will also look to get involved in the action when it all goes down with the World Tour teams.
“Everybody, our sponsors and partners have stood by us, whether we were in or out of Yorkshire but they obviously wanted us to be in it.
“The television coverage and spectators at the roadside are phenomenal. It is brilliant for us to be able to give that back to the sponsors.
“But equally, we want to go there and show why we are there, so we can be there again the year after and the year after that.”
The Tour de Yorkshire begins with a 173km stage from Bridlington to Scarborough before a 122.5km dash from Tadcaster to Harrogate follows on Saturday, April 29.
A gruelling third stage is in prospect with the cobbled Cote de Shibden Wall among a number of tough climbs on the concluding 194.5km battle from Bradford to Fox Valley in Sheffield.
Direct Energie’s Tommy Voeckler is the reigning champion, following Lars Petter Nordhaug’s success for Team Sky in the inaugural 2015 race.
Joe Fry and Sam Lowe raced the event last season for Great Britain and Team Wiggins respectively, while Opie (ONE Pro Cycling), Rob Partridge and James Lowsley-Williams (both NFTO) have competed in both editions.
Elverson, however, is confident he could select any eight riders from his 15-man squad and they would do the BIKE Channel Canyon jersey proud. He added:
“I have probably got 15 guys who could all put their hands in the air and give a good reason as to why they should be part of the squad.
“It will only be eight that take the start line, though. There will be people who don’t ride who deserve to be in there but hopefully their time will come in other races or in this race another year.
“I have got to have a blend but there are not many shoo-ins. We have now got three Prems and Rutland before Yorkshire and then the Ronde van Overijssel soon after.
“So we have got one hell of a five weeks coming up. There are plenty of opportunities and we are really looking forward to it.”