On a press conference held on the second rest day of the Tour de France, Omega Pharma-Quick Step have announced that the team will continue with ist current structure and under the Etixx-Quick Step name until the end of the 2017 season. Tony Martin has extended his contract for two years and will continue to be a key part of the roster.

At a time when several teams have a hard time finding new sponsors, Omega Pharma-Quick Step have broken the trend. Today the team have confirmed that they will continue with its current structure at least until the end of the 2017 season.

Main sponsor Omega Pharma will stay committed to the team for the next three seasons but will use the cycling sponsorship to promote the Etixx brand. Hence, the team will be known as Etixx-Quick Step from 2015 onwards.

This is not an unprecented strategy for Omega Pharma who once shared sponsorship duties with Lotto of the current Lotto Belisol team. Back then, they used the cycling sponsorship to promote brands like Silence and Predictor and so the team's name underwent changes several times.

At the same press conference, the team announced that Tony Martin has extended his contract for two years. The German was rumoured to be in negotiations with Garmin-Sharp and Sky and was looking for a team that would fully support him in his quest to win the time trial at the 2016 Olympics. Furthermore, he was looking for more support in weeklong stage races after he lost this year's Tour de Suisse due to being isolated in the mountain stages.

Apparently, team manager Patrick Lefevere has provided him with the required guarantees and so Martin will stay with the Belgian team. Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Niki Terpstra, Michal Kwiatkowski and Rigoberto Uran all have contract for the 2015 season as well.