despite its many successes, team columbia does not seem to be able to afford as many top riders as they have, and due to their many victories, a lot of riders were targeted by other teams for the 2010 season. notable riders such as kim kirchen, edvald boasson hagen, michael barry, george hincapie and thomas lövkvist elected to leave the team. as replacements, a lot of young talented riders, such as jan ghyselinck, rasmus guldhammer and martin and peter velits, were contracted.