The Dutch Vacansoleil-DCM is preparing for its first ever appearance at the Giro d’Italia and, while it doesn’t possess any top favourites for the race, the blue and yellow team hopes to do well in the three-week Corsa Rosa. Having finally achieved a place in the sport’s top division Vacansoleil-DCM will be riding all three Grand Tours this year, having missed out last year.
After being invited to the 2009 Vuelta a España, which started in Assen, in the Drenthe region of the Netherlands, Vacansoleil signed a number of international riders, including the French Feillu brothers, in order to achieve what was then ProTour status, and attract invitations to the 2010 Grand Tours. The team was unsuccessful in both aims, and missed out on a number of the season’s biggest races; its new position in the elite means a much more high profile calendar in 2011.
With a number of the World’s top sprinters targeting the early stages, Vacansoleil-DCM’s fastman will be Slovenian Borut Bozic. While he has yet to take his first victory of the season, Bozic does have Grand Tour pedigree; he took a stage victory, and a second and third place, in that 2009 Vuelta.
“As from the middle of April I took some rest and started my preparation for this race,” said Borut, “I expect to be able to be sprinting for the win after a few days of racing.”
Since the team fired former doper Riccardo Riccò, who has taken three stages in the race and finished second in the 2008 edition of the race, after he allegedly self-administered a blood transfusion, the team doesn’t possess a rider likely to challenge for the podium. The rider who will be supported in the mountain stages and the overall standings is Matteo Carrara, the winner of last year’s Tour of Luxembourg.
“I trained at altitude in Colombia and took it easy at Romandie,” he said. “My ambition is a top-ten spot in the General Classification. A three week race requires a lot of concentration and I am happy that we have this strong and close team to do the Giro with.”
With most of the team supporting either Bozic or Carrara, the team’s breakaway king Johnny Hoogerland will have his usual free role to seek out results in the race’s breakaways.
Vacansoleil-DCM team for the Giro d’Italia:
Maxim Belkov, Borut Bozic, Matteo Carrara, Michal Golas, Johnny Hoogerland, Sergey Lagutin, Alberto Ongarato, Mirko Selvaggi and Frederik Veuchelen