Russian team fielding all four of its Italians with Danilo Di Luca building up for the Vuelta
After fielding an entirely Russian line up for the Tour de France, Katusha will be sending all four of its Italians to the Tour of Poland, which starts in Pruszkov this Sunday. The race will see the return to competition for Filippo Pozzato, who has not raced since crashing out of the Tour of Belgium on May 29th.
Poland will also serve as a useful build up race for Danilo Di Luca, who is hoping to challenge for victory in the Vuelta a España at the end of August.
Pozzato broke his left collarbone and wrist after coming down in the closing kilometres of the fourth stage of the Tour of Belgium as he was guiding Luca Paolini forward for the sprint finish. After a lacklustre spring campaign, where his fifth place in Milano-Sanremo was followed by 38th in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and a failure to finish in Paris-Roubaix, the former Italian champion was disappointed to be left out of Katusha’s Giro d’Italia team. He responded to criticism from within his own team with third place overall in the Tour de Picardie in the first half of May, but his season was interrupted two weeks later by the Belgian crash.
Along with Pozzato and Di Luca, the Katusha team includes Paolini and Giampaolo Caruso, meaning that the team’s entire Italian contingent will be on the start line.
The remainder of the team will be made up of three Russians in Arkimedes Arguelyes, Petr Ignatenko and Nikolay Trusov, and Moldovan champion Alexandre Pliuschin.
Katusha team for the Tour of Poland:
Arkimedes Arguelyes, Giampaolo Caruso, Danilo Di Luca, Petr Ignatenko, Luca Paolini, Alexandr Pliuschin, Filippo Pozzato and Nikolay Trusov