A pink jersey in the northern French race is not the one that the former Italian champion wanted
Having been removed from Katusha’s Giro d’Italia line up last week, Filippo Pozzato will instead be riding the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque, which gets under way in the northern French port tomorrow. While the French race has a pink jersey for its leader to wear, it is not quite the same as the one that the former Italian champion hoped to be fighting for this month.
Pozzato has been criticised throughout his career for not turning his obvious talent into the results that it deserves, including a public censure from team boss Andre Tchmil last October. Another dismal spring campaign, where fifth place in Milano-Sanremo was the one beacon of hope among some very ordinary results, has seen him lose his place at the Giro, along with compatriot Luca Paolini, to be replaced by Russians Pavel Brutt and Eduard Vorganov.
"It's not easy for him, but he must examine his conscience," said team manager Serge Parsani, according to la Voix du Nord. "He is not happy, but he must know that the team is not pleased with his results. He’s not the thirtieth rider in our hierarchy; he’s the leader. If he’s not in condition then all of his teammates' work goes up in smoke.”
In his first year with the Russian team, in 2009, ‘Pippo’ enjoyed his best ever season, winning such prestigious races as the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, the Giro del Veneto and the Italian championships; he also took fifth in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and second in Paris-Roubaix. Since then though, it has been downhill and, although he won a stage of last year’s Giro d’Italia in his tricolore jersey, he has barely featured in many of the races he would be expected to be chasing victory in.
With his contract with the Russian Cycling Project up at the end of this year, it looks very much like Pozzato will be moving on, and may well be joining up with Katusha’s Australian equivalent, GreenEDGE; there is also the possibility that he will join Italian team Lampre-ISD, which may well be looking for a number of new riders if current doping investigations bear fruit.
"I just hope that my luck will turn soon," Pozzato sighed.
Although he may not be happy about missing the Giro to ride in Dunkirk, Pozzato won’t be the only star on show, with French champion Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Ronde van Vlaanderen winner Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank-SunGard) also present.
The race will also see a return to the peloton of Katusha’s Stijn Vandenbergh, who was forced to sit out the whole of the spring Classics season with an inflammation of the saddle area.
Katusha team for the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque:
Denis Galimzyanov, Vladimir Isaychev, Luca Paolini, Alexander Porsev, Filippo Pozzato, Nikolay Trusov, Stijn Vandenbergh and Maxime Vantomme