Says Cunego has rediscovered how to be a Grand Tour contender
Although the team didn’t succeed in taking a stage win or placing a rider in the top five overall in the Tour de France, general manager Giuseppe Saronni has said that he was satisfied with what the team took out of the race.
Alessandro Petacchi had a far quieter race than last year, when he won two stages plus the green points jersey, but picked up a solid second in the sprint into Chateauroux and third into Montpellier. Damiano Cunego was the most prominent of the riders, finishing seventh overall and beating Ivan Basso as best Italian.
“On a technical level, we can say that our result in France was good,” said Saronni. “I’d like to point out that the team showed a strong cohesion and determination to reach the fixed goals. Cunego was the best Italian rider in the overall standing and he seems to have recovered the proper feelings in a Grand Tour, a characteristic that showed that he’s a complete rider and that he could be competitive in a tough race such Tour de France.”
Although podium time would have been appreciated, the team’s appearance being limited to Adriano Malori’s most aggressive rider award on the Lisieux stage, Saronni said that that positives can be taken from the race.
“We didn’t win stages, but we often were protagonists, focusing our attention on giving our best day by day. These results allowed us to move to fifth in the UCI World Tour team classification: this place has a great value for us, since it reflects the very good job performed by our staff. The rider’s classification too is very positive for us: [Michele] Scarponi is 4th, Cunego is 15th and Petacchi is 51st. I’d like to thank the sponsors and the technical partners for these results, as they are always ready to fulfil our requests.”
Looking ahead, Saronni said that one goal is to strengthen the team to best support Cunego, Petacchi and Scarponi, the Giro d’Italia runner-up. He also said that Diego Ulissi and the other young riders were an important part of the team’s future.