The Lampre-ISD team has announced the seven-man squad that will be travelling to Australia this month to ride the Cancer Council Classic and the Santos Tour Down Under later this month. The team returns to the race after missing the 2010 edition; there were some issues with the team’s ProTour application and it had not secured its license in time last year.
The team will be directed in the race by Bruno Vicino and Bogdan Bondariev, who has moved over to the team from ISD-Neri along with the main sponsor and a number of Ukranian riders.
"The aim is to begin the season in the best way that our cyclists' condition will allow them to achieve,” explained Vicino. “We will have to compete with riders who have already reached an advanced level of physical preparation, that's why it won't be so simple to realise top performances and that's why the maximum care will be needed.
“Mori is the rider who has reached the best condition,” he continued, “since he has been training in California in good weather. Then it will be interesting to evaluate the debut of [Aitor] Perez Arrieta, the enthusiasm by the youngsters [Alfredo] Balloni and [Vitaliy] Buts and the usual experience by [Matteo] Bono, [Daniele] Righi and [Alessandro] Spezialetti".
Lampre-ISD team for the Santos Tour Down Under:
Alfredo Balloni, Matteo Bono, Vitaliy Buts, Manuele Mori, Aitor Perez Arrieta, Daniele Righi and Alessandro Spezialetti