 | TEAM FACTFILE Country: Italy Manager: Giuseppe Saronni Team leaders: Damiano Cunego, Gilberto Simoni Best Tours: ? |
The team is a pure amalgamation of the Lampre and Saeco teams, with a few other faces coming into their squad. The problem is that the team, as Lampre and Saeco both used to do, may well have expended too much on their home event - the Giro d'Italia.
But in Damiano Cunego they clearly have a rider with the potential to become the first Italian winner of the Tour de France since Marco Pantani in 1998.
Sadly a virus has ruled out Cunego from competing this time around.
Added to that blow, team-mate Gilberto Simoni will skip the Tour after complaining of "muscular fatigue".
But the Tour has never really been his race. He has continually been talked of as a rival to Lance Armstrong only to fail to deliver. He managed 17th overall last time.
MMIX
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