Bennati signs with Schleck brothers
Italian sprinter Daniele Bennati announced via Twitter that he would be riding with the new Team Luxembourg in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The 29-year-old Liquigas rider is the second sprinter to confirm his presence on the team, after Robert Wagner, and
one of only a handful of cyclists to make it ‘official’ that they would be supporting Andy and Frank Schleck in the Luxembourg-based organisation.
"There will be more concrete statements in a week," said team manager Brian Nygaard to the Danish press. "But we have already confirmed that we make a ProTour-level team built around Fränk and Andy Schleck, based in Luxembourg."
Nygaard and Kim Anderson have been confirmed to have left the former team of the Schleck brothers, Saxo Bank, with the duo in order to set up and direct the new team with them. Andy Schleck finished the Tour de France in second place to Alberto Contador
the last two years while riding for Bjarne Riis’ Team Saxo Bank, but with his departure from the team, Riis wasted no time in signing Andy’s Spanish rival to be the new Grand Tour leader for the Danish squad.
Bennati, who turned pro in 2002, has a respectable Grand Tour record himself. At the 2008 Giro d’Italia he won three stages and the overall points classification and the previous year he won two stages at the Tour de France and three at the Vuelta a Espana,
earning him the points jersey in the latter as well. Former World Champion Mari Cipollini has called him the best Italian sprinter.
Fabian Cancellara also recently announced his departure from Saxo Bank, and a Luxembourg paper reported this week that the Olympic time-trial champion would be riding for the Schleck brothers in 2011, though neither the Luxembourg team nor Cancellara have
yet confirmed this. Reportedly, since his contract with Riis’ team wasn’t due to expire until the end of 2011, he had to pay three million Euros to buy out of it.
Cancellara and Bennati will be joining Stuart O’Grady, Jens Voigt and Jakob Fuglsang in Luxembourg in support of the Schleck brothers.
Tags: