Italian champion happy to stay with Russian team
Italian champion Filippo Pozzato has decided to renew his contract with the Katusha team. The team’s president Andrei Tchmil and Pozzato came to an agreement yesterday in Lonato (Brescia), but the terms have not been announced.
Pozzato left Liquigas for the Russian team in 2009, in what would be their first year racing under a new name with a bigger budget. Katusha evolved out of the former Tinkoff Credit Systems squad, founded by Oleg Tinkoff, and was taken over by the Russian Global Cycling Project foundation. The team is funded by several prominent Russian companies including Itera, Gazprom and Rostechnologii.
Pozzato’s first season with the Russian squad started off well. He won the E3 Prijs and then followed it up with another victory in stage one of the Three Days of De Panne. The Italian then finished fifth in the Tour of Flanders and rode to second place behind Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in Paris-Roubaix. He won his national championship just before the Tour de France, closing out the year with wins in the Giro del Veneto and Memorial Cimurri, and a fourth place in Paris-Tours.
This year Pozzato’s hard work during the off-season looked like it would pay off. He put in strong rides leading up to the major spring Classics and, despite being unable to defend his title in the E3 Prijs, showed his form was well on track. Illness forced the Italian to miss the Tour of Flanders, but he fought back and managed to finish a respectable seventh in Paris-Roubaix to secure the ‘Franco Ballerini Pavé’ trophy awarded to the best Italian.
He rode well in the Giro d’Italia last month, winning the twelfth stage that finished in Porto Recanati, preceeded by a second place finish in stage nine behind Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia). His focus will now be on defending his national championship title and riding for stage wins at the Tour de France.