Following a strong performance at the Tour de Romandie, Vladimir Karpets will form a late and final addition to the Team Katusha roster for the upcoming Giro d'Italia, which will begin on Saturday in Amsterdam.
Following his 5th place overall finish at the Tour de Romandie last week, Karpets asked team management if he could take part in the race with the goal to finish in the overall Top 5 in the Corsa Rosa. Karpets had been in the midst of a nearly silent season up until Romandie. He managed a 13th overall finish at the Volta a Catalunya at the end of March, but didn't show again until a stellar 3rd place in the Stage 3 time trial at the Tour de Romandie - over a month later. He followed that the next day with 7th in Stage 4, then capped it all off with a 5th overall on Sunday in Sion.
The 30-year-old Russian all-arounder was chock full of promise in years past, but now finds himself searching eagerly perhaps desperately for a confirmation top placing at a Grand Tour. Karpets will take Marco Bandiera's place on the team roster, meaning the Italian will miss his home Grand Tour. The team has confirmed that Bandiera will get his time though, as he'll now take part in either the Tour de France or the Vuelta.
The rest of the Katusha roster will be a formidable presence for the rest of May: Robbie McEwen, Filippo Pozzato, Giampaolo Caruso, Luca Mazzanti, Joan Horrach, Mikhail Ignatiev, Evgeni Petrov, and Sergei Klimov.