Luxembourg’s new Italian sports director, Luca Guercilena ‘anxious’ to start
Team Luxembourg’s sports director Luca Guercilena aims for the top next year, a win at the Tour de France.
“I still don’t have a Grand Tour in my bag, but now I’ll try to win the Tour de France with Andy Schleck,” he told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. “But it is not only the Tour, we will be competitive all year.”
Schleck finished second in the last two editions of the Tour de France and headlines the new team based in his home country. He made the jump from team Saxo Bank to join, whereas Italy’s Guercilena switched from team Quick Step.
“Nothing personal against my former team, but I had the need to learn and to study more,” he added. “To accept this challenge I had to pay a penalty because I still had a year’s contract with Quick Step. It was the correct thing to do.”
General Manager Brian Nygaard and Team Manager Kim Andersen asked Guercilena to join their setup. He will work with the team’s other directors, Torsten Schmidt and Lars Michaelsen. They will meet with their riders for the first team camp, December 6 to 12, in Crans Montana, Switzerland.
“I am anxious,” said Guercilena, “I cannot wait to start.”
Schleck will lead the team at the Tour de France in July with his brother Fränk. Dane Jakob Fuglsang, 25, will lead the team at the Giro d’Italia in May.
“He also aims to win the Tour one day, but first we must pass by the Giro. We are also weighing the possibility of Fränk Schleck racing [the Giro].”
Guercilena will also work closely with the team’s three Italians: Davide Viganò, Giacomo Nizzolo and Daniele Bennati. He met with Bennati, winner of two Tour de France stages, yesterday for a pre-season test.
“The goal is to bring him back to his Tour 2007 level, when he won on the Champs Élysées. In making his programme, we must take into account the problems he had with his Achilles tendon. We are counting on him to have a great Milano-Sanremo, then focus on the Gent-Wevelgem.
“Roubaix and Flanders? More no than yes. So, he will race the Giro. His second period of form, however, will coincide with the Vuelta and the Worlds.”
Guercilena graduated with a physical education degree and worked with trainer Aldo Sassi at Italy’s Mapei centre prior to becoming a sports director. At the centre, he met many of Italy’s young talents and developed his eye for future talents.
“[Fabian] Cancellara and [Filippo] Pozzato already had strong numbers as kids. The same can be said of [Adriano] Malori. Now, I would like to focus on [Dario] Cataldo, [Davide] Malacarne and [Daniele] Ratto. Among the foreigners, I like the Irishman Daniel Martin and Czech Peter Velits.”
Austrian Stefan Denifl, 23, and Giacomo Nizzolo, 21, are are team Luxemboug’s youngest riders. Nizzolo turns professional next year and Denifl raced for the last four years, winning the Thüringen Rundfahrt last year.