The 2009 Tour de France King of the Mountains Franco Pellizotti is yet to finalise his plans for next season, but it appears he may be very close to completing a deal with Team Movistar.
The Spanish squad is still seeking a leader for the Grand Tours and with Pellizotti on the market, negotiations have been ongoing for some time.
According to Ciclismo Fondo, Team Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue has travelled to Italy and will meet both the rider and his agent to try to finalise things.
Movistar is the 2011 incarnation of the Caisse d’Epargne team, which was led by Alejandro Valverde until the Spaniard was suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It has some solid riders for 2011, including Xavier Tondo, but needs a big name rider. Pellizotti appears to fit the bill.
Like Valverde, he was also sidelined. The UCI reported him as having a suspicious biological passport but Pellizotti successfully appealed it to the Italian national anti-doping court (TNA). Since he was cleared, Ciclismo Fondo reports that Team Sky, Acqua & Sapone and Liquigas all had talks with him, but Movistar is the one that is left in the picture and inching closer and closer to a deal.
He refers to it as, “the offer that I like best in all the respects and because of that, I am delaying my decision.” By that, he presumably means that he is making sure that everything is done in the best possible way to ensure it works out well.
It remains to be seen if the UCI will appeal the TNA decision, taking the case to CAS. That option is open to the governing body, and makes things a little complicated for whichever team takes him on.