Lampre-ISD has enjoyed one of its more successful seasons in terms of race wins. The Italian outfit has ended the year in seventh place on the UCI WorldTour rankings, six places better than last year. Marquee riders Michele Scarponi, Damiano Cungeo and Alessandro Petacchi were collectively only responsible for nine of the victories, while Francesco Gavazzi, Diego Ulissi and Daniele Pietropolli added considerably to the tally.
2011 recruit Scarponi finished fifth in the WorldTour rider rankings thanks to his second place finish in the Giro d’Italia and a stage win in Tirreno-Adriatico. The 37 year old Petacchi has been less than impressive this season, having never won so few races in a season since 1999. However, he still managed to take a stage in the Giro.
While the team is still chasing glory this weekend with Cunego at the Japan Cup, its focus has already changed to the 2012 season. On Thursday and Friday the team will be heading to the Mapei Sports Centre to perform medical tests and technical evaluations before starting the off season.
“The partnership with Mapei Center was appreciated by the whole team and by the athletes and the results we got made us willing to start again from firm and scientific basis. The doctors of the team and the staff of Mapei Sport Service scheduled the necessary medical checks and the important assessment tests that are useful for planning the training,” Roberto Damiani, Lampre-ISD's sport manager, explained.
While Vuelta a España stage winner Gavazzi’s move to Astana has been confirmed, the teams hasn’t been forthcoming with announcements about new riders for next year. Davide Vigano is rumoured to be moving from Leopard Trek to Lampre-ISD while Winner Andrew Anacona and Mattia Cattaneo are also said to be turning professional with the Italian squad.