New sponsor’s money mean more signings for Mauro Gianetti’s team
The Geox team, currently known as Footon-Servetto, has announced the signing of four more riders for its 2011 roster. David Blanco joins from Portuguese team Palmeiras Resort-Prio, Daniele Colli from Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce, and Mauricio Ardila and Dmitriy Kozontchuk follow their team leader Denis Menchov from Rabobank.
35-year-old Blanco was spent most of his career riding for Portuguese teams; he rode for Comunidad Valenciana, but returned to Portugal and the Palmieres Resort team when the Spanish team collapsed in the wake of Operacion Puerto. His most prominent results have been winning four editions of the Tour of Portugal, including the last three.
Colli has ridden at the ProTour level before, having spent two seasons with the Liquigas team; he is currently enjoying his best season to date though, taking several top-five finishes including fourth in the Coppa Bernocchi and third in the GP Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese.
Colombian Ardila and Russian Kozontchuk have both been at Rabobank for a number of years; Ardila joined in 2006, while Kozontchuk rode with the under-23 Rabobank Continental team from 2005, making the leap to the ProTour team in 2007. Both riders have spent their time working for their team leaders, notably Menchov, and have very few personal results; Ardila’s most notable result was 20th overall in the 2008 Giro d’Italia.