Management

LAMPRE - ISD (LAM) - ITA

The Lampre-ISD team is one of the cornerstones of Italian cycling and some of the most successful Italian riders proudly wear the team’s pink and blue colours.

Michele Scarponi confirmed his stage race potential in last year’s Giro d’Italia. He finished second to Alberto Contador but was awarded victory following the Spaniard’s legal case at the Court for Arbitration for Sport. Scarponi is expected to return to the Giro d’Italia this year but is also tempted to target the Tour de France in July to measure his ability against many of the other stage race riders of his generation. It is expected to be an important season for the rider from the Marche region.

Scarponi shares the role of stage race leader at Lampre-ISD with Damiano Cunego. He was seventh overall in the 2011 Tour de France and second overall in the Tour de Suisse. Cunego’s fast finish also makes him a one-day classics contender and has won the Giro di Lombardia three times and the Amstel Gold Race once. He will again target the Ardennes classics in the spring and is expected to play a leading role in the Italian team for the world road race championship in the hilly Limburg region of the southern Netherlands.

The Lampre-ISD team has carefully natured some of the best young Italian riders in recent years and these are expected to emerge with decision in 2012. Diego Ulissi is a former double junior world champion and won a stage at the Giro d’Italia in 2011, Adriano Malori is a strongest and still developing time trialist, while Simoni Stortoni and Davide Cimolai are aggressive attackers. Australia’s Matthew Lloyd is also back racing with Lampe-ISD this year. He won the climber’s jersey at the 2010 Giro d’Italia and can always be trusted to light up the toughest mountain stages.

Despite now being 38, sprinter Alessandro Petacchi is still strong and can count on lead out men Danilo Hondo and Grega Bole. Petacchi, like many of the riders on the Lampre-ISD roster, should never be overlooked. They have the ability and experience to win any race.