Great Britain Olympic hopeful, David Fletcher has signed a two year contract with Professional UCI Team, Orange Monkey-Cannondale for the start of the 2012 Mountain Bike season.

Fletcher has been coached through the famous British Cycling academy, which bought him success from a young age, taking the bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in 2007. In more recent times, David has had top ten results in the Elite Under-23 category at World level and now moves up to the Senior ranks for the first time in arguably the best form of his life.

We are delighted to announce that we have renewed our sponsorship agreements with Zipvit Sport, Mavic, KCNC and Squirt lubrication for the 2012 season. This is a positive step in continuing our relationship with these amazing brands and giving the team the stability we need.

We feel genuinely priviledged that in 2012 we are once again working with the very best brands in the business!

Orange Monkey-Cannondale is delighted to introduce Prologo as their new saddle sponsor for 2012. This is a new relationship with a brand that is regarded by many as one of the most innovative in the business.

The team will use the Nago EVO X10 complete with its unique slide control feature as well as the Scratch Pro for training. Prologo have developed a saddle that can cater for every one of all shapes and sizes. The Nago Evo X10, at just 158g and with its active density padding is without doubt the benchmark for Cross Country Mountain Bike saddles.

We are very excited to be able to announce that we have a change of cycling apparel for the 2012 season and are delighted to start a new relationship with Primal Wear!

After meeting the team from Primal it became clear instantly that this was a company we wanted to work alongside. Primalwear have a clear vision of how a company should operate and like us want to see the sport of cycling progress within the local communities.

A new beginning deserves a new design and working with the clever graphic designers at Primal Wear we have a life like image of our 2012 kit!

Can you guess our next and final signing for the 2012 season?

We will be awarding some great prizes including an Orange Monkey t-shirt, Pen and some fantastic goodies from Zipvitsport.com, plus a signed photocard from the team!

What do you have to do?

Simply tweet us with the words @TeamOMC (the name of our new signing) and your own twitter name. Dont follow us on Twitter yet? Follow this link

The first tweet to guess correctly will win a host of prizes!

We are delighted to announce that Cannondale will stay as title sponsor to the team in 2012.

The team continue a great relationship, now in its third year, with a brand that has aligned itself as the most innovative in the business. Lance Armstrong said “It’s not about the bike” and whilst this maybe true (to a degree), Cannondale sure know how to make life easier for our athletes as they focus towards the 2012 Olympics and a season of World Cup competition.

Almost as famous as Lance himself, our young South African rider stated last year that he “felt sorry for everybody not on a Cannondale”, which goes to show the confidence these machines give our young athletes.

Junior rider Alex Baker has renewed his contract with Orange Monkey-Cannondale for a further two seasons, this will see him race for the team in his final year as a Junior & first year as an under 23 Elite competitor. Alex had a fantastic season in 2011, which saw him compete in his first World Cup at his home race, Dalby Forest, UK. Baker’s season highlight was his second place result in the British National Championships, which made him the highest placed first year Junior.

Paul Beales has also signed a short term 1 year deal with the team. Paul brings his vast experience to the younger riders on the team. He had several great results in the 2011 season, claiming his best result in the British National Championships.

The team are excited to announce that Ben Roff has signed a new two year deal with the team keeping him on until 2013. Ben's progression has been outstanding with his focus and commitment shining throughout the 2011 season.

Ben was consistent throughout 2011 with some outstanding results in his first year Under 23. He now looks to build on his first UCI points picked up in Poland back in October to give him the springboard he needs to work his way up the World Cup grid.

We are delighted with this long term signing and are positive that with this continued focus Ben will become one of the best riders in the UK.

We have great pleasure in announcing that the team have secured the services of Rourke Croeser on a two year deal that will take him to the end of his under 23 campaign in 2013.

This is a real sign of intent from both the team and the rider as Orange Monkey-Cannondale look to build on the success of 2011 and move forward with their long term goals. Both Rourke and the team are clear on the vision for the future and by Rourke gaining valuable experience in Europe we hope to watch him develop into the very best in South Africa.

Rourke spent some time with the team in 2010 before signing a one year deal last season. In his first year with the team Rourke made history by winning the team its first National Championship. He also won a UCI Category 2 race, placed 13th at a World Cup and gave the team its first National Elite podium in Britain.

It is with a heavy heart and a fond farewell that we announce the departure of popular Elite rider, Chris Andrews at the end of 2011 after two successful years with the team.

Chris joined us from Kinesis in 2009 and has moved through the ranks to compete with some of the best riders in the UK. Chris joined the team on numerous journeys around the world and was a popular character.

We would like to thank Chris for his services to the team and wish him all the very best for the future as he continues his progression as an Elite athlete in 2012.

Orange Monkey-Cannondale are delighted to renew their sponsorship with Schwalbe UK for 2012.

The team have been using Schwalbe for the past 4 years and are very excited about continuing this great relationship. One of the most important things for a rider is to trust his tyres and have confidence that when descending an alpine peak at 50kph he is on safe rubber!

Schwalbe UK's Marketing Manager, Dave Taylor commented: “Schwalbe UK has always envisaged its association with Orange Monkey-Cannondale to be a long term partnership so, once again we are proud to confirm support for the guys in their quest for more MTB glory in 2012. As one of the most well recognised and successful Cross Country Mountain Bike teams in the UK we believe that they should be riding on some of the most well recognised and successful rubber in the industry”

There are many cycling teams around the world – all with there own story and all in it for different reasons. When Orange Monkey was formed in 2004 there was a clear vision, to reach the top in the sport we love, Mountain Biking.

2011 moved us a step closer to this dream with the arrival of a UCI license, this changed things on many levels but most importantly gave us a huge boost in confidence that we can actually fulfil our goals. To mark this historic event we made a bold decision to move away from our trademark orange kit and go for a more subtle black and white combination, this worked well and in our view was our best kit yet.

We have worked hard over the years to secure sponsors for our riders and are lucky enough to work with some of the best brands in the sport! We have always maintained that if we were a paying customer we would buy a Cannondale – there is simply no point in riding anything else! As well as some of our existing sponsors from 2010 we welcomed Mavic, Zipvit, Magura, Cycleops, Casco, Squirt, XCRacer.com, Pedal Precision, FSA, Crank Brothers and No Tubes. As im sure you will agree that is some line up! Now all that was left to do is sign up the riders!