Caisse d’Epargne is getting ready for their 2010 season with a meeting on December 14th and 15th in the locality of Gorráiz (Navarra). The focus of the meeting is one of logistics for the bikes and clothing, as well as medical examinations and the official pictures of the team.
The Spanish team has made some interesting additions in the off season that include Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre-NGC), Christophe Moreau (Agritubel), Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) and Juan Jose Cobo (Fuji-Servetto). The recruits have a wealth of experience in stage racing and also represent improvements in the team's climbing prowess.
Recently team leader Alejandro Valverde expressed his aim to focus on the Tour de France 100% next season, opting not to commit to his defense of his 2009 Vuelta a Espana win telling Biciclismo, "The Tour is above everything, and it will be my main focus. I do not think about the Vuelta, it [my participation] will depend on many factors."
Valverde, 29, was forced to sit out the 2009 edition of the Tour de France due to its brief incursion onto Italian soil during stage 16. Earlier this year the anti-doping tribunal of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) sentenced him to a two-year ban for his involvement with the Operation Puerto scandal. Blood samples taken from Valverde in Italy during the 2008 Tour de France matched the DNA in blood bags seized during the Operation Puerto searches, prompting the action.
Two upcoming hearings with the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) will determine whether the International Cycling Union's case against the cyclist will extend his ban beyond the borders of Italy to include the rest of the world.