Not easy to take on Contador but team’s future looks bright with riders like Diego Ulissi
Roberto Damiani took over the reins at Lampre-ISD less than one month ago, after the previous team manager Giuseppe Saronni left amid the Mantova doping invstigation. The Italian, who had worked as a sport director with Omega Pharma-Lotto for a number of years, was straight into action with his new team; leading it in an attempt to win the Giro d’Italia.
As Damiani spoke to VeloNation, and the race was about to hit the mountains one last time, his team leader was in second overall behind eventual winner Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard). With the strength that the Spaniard had shown throughout the race though, getting past him was a virtually impossible task.
“It’s not easy to try for the pink jersey,” said Damiani, “because Contador is super strong and the team of Contador is good; not a super team, but with this Contador he doesn’t need the team. There is work [to do] for the stage for the other teams; it’s not easy.”
Despite the enormity of the task ahead of Lampre-ISD though, the team refused to give up.
“I think we fight to the finish,” he said, “but it’s not easy.”
In the end it wasn’t easy, and Contador continued to pile the seconds on to his lead, in the mountains and on the time trial in the final day. Scarponi eventually finished 6’10” down, but managed to hold on to his second place.
Second place for Scarponi though, represents a best ever result for the Eagle of Filittrano; going two better than his fourth place of last year. With Contador seemingly out of touch, Lampre-ISD’s task was to hold off the attentions of Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) and John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale).
“For sure the focus of the team is the podium,” confirmed Damiani, “and second place is really good.”
Lampre-ISD’s Giro was by no means all about just Scarponi though, with the team successful right from the start.
“We began with a really good team time trial,” he explained, “and the day after we won with [Alessandro] Petacchi, it was a good moment because at the beginning the morale situation of the team was really good. And [Diego] Ulissi was a super moment because he’s a young rider, he’s a good rider and he works for Scarponi, and tried the opportunity in the stage to Tirano.
Petacchi won the first road stage between Alba and Parma, then followed up with a second place and three thirds, before heading home with many of the other sprinters after stage twelve when the Giro gave way to its mountainous final week. It was Ulissi’s stage though, when he was awarded the win after Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli) pushed him in the finishing sprint, that seems to give Damiani most pleasure.
“Yeah,” he agreed on the matter of whether Ulissi’s sprint had been a fair one, “but it was a super moment for Ulissi and also for the future of the team.”
Damiani spent a number of years with Omega Pharma-Lotto, and it’s previous incarnations, and, while he has no regrets over his move to Lampre-ISD, Damiani looks back fondly to his time with the Belgian team.
“I had a super good experience at Omega Pharma-Lotto,” he enthused, “and always I say thank you to Omega Pharma-Lotto, to Mark Sergeant and all the people of Omega Pharma-Lotto, because it was a super good experience in Belgium.
“There is super cycling, it is a religion,” he continued, “cycling, but at this moment it is time to come back to Italy for the new work in Lampre. I’m not a sport director, I have another job, and it’s not easy; I prefer to stay with the riders, but it is my job.
“I don’t know, the future will speak for me,” he concluded.