Androni Giocattoli team manager Gianni Savio has categorically denied rumours that his rider Jose Rujano might compete in the Vuelta a España as part of a rival team, saying that the rider will stay put with his current squad.
Rujano returned to the team this year and rode the Giro d’Italia, winning a stage, netting second on two others and finishing seventh overall. The team wasn’t given an invite to the Vuelta a España but, insists Savio, the rider doesn’t have the option to go elsewhere.
He said that when he signed the rider last year, it was on the understanding that he would get to do the 2011 Giro, but also that he would accept a two year deal.
“After having disappeared for five years, Rujano is back on top mainly thanks to his talent and application, but also because he has found in our team an ideal environment,” he explained to www.spaziociclismo.it. Savio told VeloNation in a video interview conducted during the Giro d’Italia that the rider was back on track because he and the team were on the same wavelength. “He is well in our team and I think we are able to understand him,” he explained. “We know him very well. I am very optimistic for the future.”
Since the Giro, Rujano hasn’t had the opportunity to ride races at the same level as the Grand Tour. On Sunday he finished ninth in the Vuelta a Venezuela.
According to Savio, the two year deal that was agreed gave scope for ample bonuses to be paid in 2012, based on how the rider performed this season.
He told VeloNation earlier this year that the team would jump at the chance to ride the Tour de France, but also accepts that the squad’s budget and size is some way away from what is required.
Providing Rujano’s renaissance continues, he is likely to want to do cycling’s biggest event. It looks likely that he’ll have to base his ambitions on the Giro d’Italia in 2012, however.