Italian Damiano Cunego ended weeks of speculation today when he confirmed to the Gazzetta dello Sport he would continue to ride for the Lampre team through 2012. The "Little Prince" had been tipped to move over to Team Geox, the new name for Mauro Gianetti's Footon-Servetto-Fuji team. The Italian footwear company announced in March that it would sponsor the Lampre-Farnese Vini team, and they decided to step up their investment in the sport for 2011 by taking over the title sponsorship for Gianetti's team.
"That was the most important decision in my life," Cunego told the Italian paper. "I've been thinking about switching because I thought that maybe I needed a new motivation."
His previous ties with Geox and the team's recent signings of Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre saw the young team begin to add some experience and firepower, and made a potential move by Cunego seem more palatable. In the end, he decided to stay in a program he was familiar with, rather than see if a change could ignite his career.
"The environment at Lampre has both good times and bad times behind me," he admitted to the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Since turning professional in 2002 with the Saeco team, Cunego has spent his entire career with at least part of the same system following the merger of Saeco and Lampre in 2005. It was at that time the 22 year old Cunego easily won the 2004 Giro d'Italia ahead of his team captain and defending champion Gilberto Simoni.
Simoni was highly upset with the way Cunego rode in his home Tour, embarrasing his elder statesman on several occasions with attacks. Simoni ended up finishing the race in third place, three seconds behind Serhiy Honchar, and both riders remained with the Lampre-Caffita team to finish out their respective contracts making for a tense 2005. Simoni then joined Saunier-Duval before moving to Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni in 2008.
Along with his overall win in the Giro d'Italia, Cunego's career highlights include three wins in the Giro di Lombardia (2004, 2007, 2008), an the Amstel Gold Race (2008), stages of both the Giro and the Vuelta a España, as well as the Best Young Rider classification at the Tour de France (2006). Following his overall success at the Giro, he was touted as Italy's next big Grand Tour rider, but after years of trying to succeed in the Grand Tours, he has changed his focus toward the one-day races and stage wins.
The recent addition of ISD as a sponsor will likely have played a factor in the Italian's final decision, giving the team enough of a change in enviroment to fuel his motivation.