The team selection of two-time World champion Paolo Bettini has come in for some criticism from fellow former rainbow jersey Mario Cipollini. “Cipo” feels that the team picked by his former squadra azzura teammate is not the right one for the course; he also that Bettini has opted for older, established riders rather than take a risk on some one younger.
“The decision to choose the older riders for the World Championships is a weak one,” said the 2002 World champion in De Standaard, “Bettini has deliberately ignored the younger riders because they could have given him problems.
“I hope that it doesn’t end in Australia as it did in South Africa,” he added, referring to the Italian team at the football World Cup in the summer, which entered the tournament as defending champions but failed to win a game and went home after the first group stage; much of the Italian media blamed the average age of the key players for the failure.
“The choice of Bruseghin is strange,” said Cipollini, “he’s proven useful in the past, but is he fit right now?
“Daniele Bennati would have been a better option,” he opined, “he showed his form in the Vuelta [a España] and can compete with Cavendish in a sprint.”
Bettini has consistently said though, that he feels that the course is too demanding for the pure sprinters, and is more suited to the classics riders whom he has selected.
Outside the Italian team though, Cipollini agrees with Bettini on which riders are favourites for the race: Spain’s three-time champion Oscar Freire and Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert.
“Freire hid himself during the Vuelta and he is at his most dangerous,” he said. “Gilbert makes a good impression and he has proven that he can win big races, either in a breakaway or in a sprint.”