November 10, 2006 – Canada’s newest UCI-sanctioned racing team, L’équipe Vallée de l’aluminium (EVA), officially revealed its team roster yesterday. The team, based in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region, has been busy recruiting local talent there.

As reported previously by Pedal, Alexandre Lavallée, formerly of Volkswagen-Trek, is the directeur sportif. Senior team members include: Éric Boily, Frédéric Boivin, Charles Thibeault and Raphaël Tremblay. Lavallée has also recruited Bruno Langlois, Mathieu Roy and Mathieu Toulouse, a well-known, top level, mountain biker. Toulouse is still under contract with Maxxis for the 2007 mountain bike season and is joining EVA for a few road races as well.

Junior riders include Stéphane Cossette, Simon Brassard, David Maltais and Lenny Dion. On the female junior team, we find Raphaëlle Chrétien, Janie Fortin, Gabrielle Duchesne and Mia Laberge. EVA is apparently still trying to recruit more cyclists to ride in specific races.

Quebec’s popular cycling website Veloptimum reached Toulouse, asking him about his decision to ride with EVA. “This is a good opportunity for me to contest some nice (road) races and, at the same time, complement my preparation for mountain biking. But I also have some cyclocross heats on my calendar,” commented Toulouse.

The Tour de Beauce and the new Montreal-Boston race were specifically cited by EVA as events the team will participate in.