Italian team to rebuild with new riders, staff and methods to turn potential into results
Two stage wins and the green points jersey would represent a very good return from the Tour de France for most teams. For a team like Lampre-Farnese Vini though, which started the race with much higher ambitions, the fact that all of these prizes were taken by one man, Alessandro Petacchi, is a little disappointing.
Damiano Cunego was in a number of breakaway stages, particularly in the mountains, but came away from the race empty handed once more. His best results were third behind Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) on stage 9 to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, on a day where he looked the favourite to win, and fourth behind Pierrick Fédrigo (Bbox Bouyges Telecom) on stage 16 to Pau. He also finished fifth in the polka-dot mountains jersey classification, a competition that he could expect to go well in if he tried.
Cunego was the team’s best finisher in 29th place, 56’53” behind Alberto Contador (Astana), and was the only Lampre-Farnese Vini rider inside the top-100. Unsurprisingly, the blue and fuchsia team finished second to last in the team classification, only managing to beat Team Milram.
"We knew that we went to France, to the most important race, counting on a very good selection but, as you could understand, it's not so simple to change this potential into results,” said the team’s general manager Giuseppe Saronni. “Our cyclists rode in a intelligently and gave their best, focusing their attention on the common targets: this is the way that Petacchi's victories, Cunego's attacks and Alessandro in green in Paris became reality.
“Compliments to all our athletes. Our sponsors' visibility was huge and we hope that we entertained the cycling fans."
In order to give the team a better chance to perform in next year’s big races, Saronni and the Lampre-Farnese Vini team are working to improve the squad for next year.
"In cooperation with the owners of the team and with the technical staff, we're working towards making the roster even more competitive and to turn the team towards the top of the sport,” he explained. “The programme will be over a three-year period and it will supported by our sponsors.
“First of all, we're approaching riders in order to raise the level of quality of our roster, always paying attention to the proper mix of youth and experience: we have already signed agreements with cyclists that can be competitive in stages races and to perform in the mountains. Of course, we'll continue to do our best in order to improve the performances of our young athletes.”
As well as the recruitment of new riders, changes will be made behind the scenes in order to make the best use of those riders.
“In order to optimise in the best way the qualities of the riders in which we decided to invest,” he added, “we know that it's necessary to have the opportunity to rely on a technical guide with high professional qualities. We think that we found the right person on which to rely; he'll be joining our technical staff.
The Lampre-Farnese Vini team will also be using technology, both to optimise riders’ performance, and to make sure they do it all legally.
“Another important step we're taking will allow us to be able to use important tools for checking the physical condition of our riders,” explained Saronni. "Our aim is to cooperate with a specialized centre that will give us the chance to plan training and race programme with a base of objective data. In addition, this cooperation will allow us certify the physical parameters of the cyclists and to show complete cleanliness."