Following an aggressive Spring Classics campaign which saw the Katusha team animate the races but ultimately miss out on the win, the Russian ProTour team will head to the Giro d’Italia with a squad that is more than capable of clocking up some successes.
Multiple Tour de France stage winner and former Maillot Vert Robbie McEwen will aim to add to his impressive career total of twelve stage wins at the Giro and, with the Australian now appearing to be fully over the injuries he suffered in 2009, he has a good chance.
McEwen has just one win to his credit thus far in 2010, the Trofeo Mallorca, and will be extremely hungry to add to that statistic and thus show that he is fully over what was a tough period for him.
Italian national champion Filippo Pozzato also wants to spray the bubbly, as he is yet to raise his arms skywards in 2010. As ever, his chances of a Classics win were much hyped but, as before, he was unable to deliver on the expectations. He missed the Tour of Flanders due to illness, was seventh in Paris-Roubaix, 29th in Milan-Sanremo and 80th in Amstel Gold.
His highest placing thus far was fourth in both the Montepaschi Strade Bianche and the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, making it certain that the pressure is on to deliver and justify his wages. While he’s highly unlikely to win any bunch gallops, he’ll go on long range attacks and see if he can get the better of a small group.
Mikhail Ignatyev will follow the exact same tactic, as it’s one that has worked out well in the past. His lone breaks from small moves don’t always pay off, but when they do the Russian relishes the solo to the line. Stage six of Tirreno Adriatico is his top result of 2010, and he’d dearly love to take his first-ever Giro stage.
Giampaolo Caruso made his debut for Katusha in last Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, having transferred from the Ceramica Flaminia team in order to be able to do the Giro.
The former world championship under 23 silver medallist and European champion was previously 19th and 12th in the 2005 and 2006 Giri d’Italia. However he was then implicated in Operación Puerto, served part of a two year ban in 2007, then was ultimately cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Since moving to Ceramica prior to the 2008 season, he has clocked up solid placings of fifth in the Giro dell’Emilia and seventh in the Giro del Trentino, but his best achievement was two stages plus the overall classification in last year’s Brixia Tour.
McEwen, Pozzato, Ignatiev and Caruso will be joined by Luca Mazzanti, Marco Bandiera, Joan Horrach, Evgeni Petrov and Serguei Klimov. The Italian tour begins in Amsterdam in just over one week’s time.