From Colston Crawford of the Derby Telegraph

ROBIN SHARMAN has landed the professional contract he has dreamed of for the next road racing season.The news is the perfect end to a summer in which the 23-year-old Repton rider fell out with his amateur team in France, Nantes 44, and had started to think that his three seasons of hard slog in continental racing were not going to pay off. Now, however, Sharman�s chance has been offered by Britiain�s leading cycle racing team, Life Repair RT, after he completed an unofficial two-race trial for them over the last fortnight. He is the second signing, after national circuit race champion Dean Downing, for a new Anglo-Irish squad being put together by Life Repair to compete in UCI Division Three races on the continent next season.

That will be a step up for Sharman and he is thrilled at the prospect.�I have to admit I had lost a lot of hope,� he said. �But now I�m buzzing and I can hardly explain how happy this has made me. It means I�m starting to achieve what I set out to achieve in the first place.�It will be a step up, physically as well as on paper. I�ve not raced a full season of UCI events so I�m really excited at the challenge.�Life Repair RT have dominated the British road racing scene with top racers John Tanner, Mark Lovatt and Kevin Dawson for the last three seasons.

Marketed as an ethical compensation and financial services company, Life Repair has become hugely successful, allowing managing director Tim Schools, a former racing cyclist, to indulge his desire to �put something back� into cycling. Team manager Phil Leigh says they will not fall into the trap of previous British racing outfits by aiming too high, too soon. �We�re not aiming to ride the Tour de France next year or anything like that.

"The idea is to gain a foothold in Division Three and work towards becoming a Division Two team,� he said. Attracted by the prospect, Sharman contacted Life Repair in the middle of September and was offered the two trial races, a two-day stage race in the Isle of Wight a fortnight ago and the Bob Swailes Memorial Road Race in Cumbria last week.

�I wasn�t handed it on a plate, that�s for sure,� said Sharman.�I had to go out and get this, so I�m pleased to have proved myself.�I�d been off the bike for nearly two months. All the Life Repair boys were racing but I was told I was racing against them, not with them.� Sharman managed fourth overall in the Isle of White event, where the first three places were precitably filled by Life Repair riders. And he finished sixth in Cumbria in a race won by Malcolm Elliott in which four of the top five were Life Repair riders. This time, Sharman picked up the prize for the most aggressive rider.

�In the circumstances, it couldn�t have gone better,� he said.�I felt phyiscally better than I had in the Isle of Wight and it was the sort of result I could really only have hoped for if I�d been in full training.� Team manager Leigh was impressed too, having noted that the un-sponsored Sharman was racing on what was little more than a winter training bike. �He�d not been racing and training for a while and was not in top condition. So we were impressed with his riding and his whole attitude,� said Leigh. �He has an aggressive, strong riding style and we think he�s a young man with a great future.�We�ll have six or eight riders based in Belgium next season and we see Robin as an integral part of that team. Now it�s down to him � he�s the one who turns the pedals.�