The new MCipollini-Giordana team will start its first ever race at the Tour of Qatar next month and will send all of its former World champions to the Gulf state. The team, led by Walter Ricci, the former long term manager of the Selle Italia-Ghezzi team, will feature 2009 World champion Tatiana Guderzo, 2008 World and Olympic champion Nicole Cooke, and 2007 World champion Marta Bastianelli, as well as 2009 World junior champion Rossella Callovi and reigning Italian champion Monia Baccaille.
“We are going there to compete,” said Ricci, “and we will look forward to the spring to really surprise.”
“The course doesn’t really suit our riders,” he explained, “but we will not be going there for training. We are ready to compete and we are going there looking to get some important results.”
While the pan-flat desert stages will not suit the climbers in the team, like Bastianelli and Guderzo, sprinters Baccaille and Callovi will likely be contesting the stage finishes; the combative Cooke will almost certainly be involved in the action.
"It 's a thrill to have started this adventure with a women's professional team,” said Alessia Piccolo, General Director of Giordana and ‘godmother’ of the team, “and we're all anxious to see our girls at work. Giordana, DMT and MCipollini aim at the image and at the message that these girls will spread all over the World, so we are delighted that the season is finally upon us".
MCipollini-Giordana team for the Tour of Qatar:
Monia Baccaille, Marta Bastianelli, Rossella Callovi, Nicole Cooke, Tatiana Guderzo and Marta Tagliaferro.