The blue and fuchsia Lampre-Farnese Vini team is taking a team full of fast men to the Vattenfall Cyclissics in Hamburg, Germany this weekend. The race generally finishes in a bunch sprint, despite the succession of small hills designed to break up the peloton and the Italian team is working towards this end.
"In Hamburg we'll aim to be ready in the eventuality of a final massive sprint, since it appears to be a probable conclusion considering the previous years’ history,” explained Lampre-Farnese Vini sport director Fabrizio Bontempi. “During the race we'll evaluate who, among our sprinters, will be the one with more energy in his legs: if [Alessandro] Petacchi shows his Tour de France form, he'll be our captain, but we could rely as alternatives on the grit of [Angelo] Furlan, on the quality of [Mirco] Lorenzetto and on the motivation of [Danilo] Hondo, at his first race in Germany wearing blue-fucsia jersey.
“[Mauro] Da Dalto and [Matteo] Bono will work in the early part of the race,” he added, “while [Vitaliy] Buts will be free to join the eventual breakaways. It will be also important [David] Loosli's return to racing, after a three months out because of a cyst".
The race takes in four ascents of the Waseberg, which has slopes of up to 16%, he last of which comes just 16km from the finish. Even this though is rarely enough to prevent a properly organised sprinter’s team from pulling a breakaway back. Last year’s race was won by Garmin-Transitions’ Tyler Farrar.
After the Vattenfall Cyclassics, the team will continue north to the Eneco Tour with a similar team. "The target will be stage victories,” said Bontempi, “even though we'll try to be competitive in the overall standing too, maybe thanks to Spilak, with the aim of a good placement that will allow us to obtain points for the world ranking"
Lampre-Farnese Vini for the Vattenfall Cyclassics:
Alessandro Petacchi, Danilo Hondo, Mirco Lorenzetto, Angelo Furlan, Matteo Bono, Vasiliy Buts, Mauro Da Dalto and David Loosli
Lampre-Farnese Vini for the Eneco Tour:
Matteo Bono, Vasiliy Buts, Mauro Da Dalto, Angelo Furlan, David Loosli, Adriano Malori, Marcin Sapa and Simon Spilak