After missing the Giro d’Italia in order to focus on the Tour de France, Damiano Cunego will continue his preparation for the latter when he lines out in the Critérium du Dauphiné this weekend.
The 2004 Giro champion, who was best young rider in the 2006 Tour and finished sixth overall two years ago, recently used the Bayern Rundfahrt to work on his form and to support his Lampre-Merida team-mate Adriano Malori. The latter won a stage plus the overall in the German race.
Now the focus shifts to him trying to clock up good results for himself. “In the past weeks I trained a lot and in Bayern Rundfahrt, working in support of Malori, I had the chance to improve my fitness,” he said. “I'll be in the Critérium Dauphiné working on two goals: I'd like to be in the top part of the overall classification and on stages, and I'll also focus my attention on the improvement of my condition in view of Italian championship and Tour de France.”
The 31 year old will be joined by Josè Serpa Perez, Kristijan Durasek, Elia Favilli, Massimo Graziato, Andrea Palini, Maximiliano Richeze and Matteo Bono.
Meanwhile double Critérium du Dauphiné champion Alejandro Valverde will head a strong Movistar lineup in the same race. The Spaniard, who was second in last year’s Vuelta a España and who wants to try to finish on the podium of the Tour de France, will join up with Jonathan Castroviejo, Eros Capecchi, Imanol Erviti, José Herrada, Ángel Madrazo, Eloy Teruel and Sylwester Szmyd.