Italy ready to take advantage as Belgium short of sprinter Tom Boonen – Cycling News
Philippe Gilbert will be leading the Belgian team in the World Championships as the team is ready to dominate the event in Copenhagen. Gilbert has just returned from Canada after the successful GP de Quebec as he moved to first position at the UCI World
Tour rankings leaving the Tour de France 2011 winner Cadel Evans behind at the second position.
Gilbert misses his team-mate Tom Boonen who could not race in the World Championships after the stage 15 crash at the Vuelta a Espana 2011 as he mentioned that Boonen’s absence will surely be felt at the Championships. He told DHnet, “We miss the ultimate
weapon-we’ll have to do it without a rival for the pure sprinters: Greipel, Cavendish, Farrar and this sort of super fast men.” He further added that people are calling team Belgium as favourites but they are certainly short of a full time sprinter which would
have really increased their confidence.
Philippe however is optimistic about the Championship as he believes that his team is strong enough for the 266 kilometre road race and a little bit of luck can do the trick for the team. He mentioned that, “If the other nations make the race hard, then
perhaps I stand a chance.”
On the other hand Belgium’s traditional rival Italy has also announced their squad for the World Championships as Sacha Modolo and Daniele Bennati are the two sprinters in the Italian team. The two times trial specialists in the team are Adriano Malori
and Marco Pinotti however, the final list of 9 cyclists to start the race will only be announced on race day.
Italian coach Paolo Bettini mentioned that Filippo Pozzato called him and informed that he does not want to be selected for the World Championships as he was suffering after the crash during the Tour of Belgium. “Pozzato was under special consideration but
he called me and said:’ before you call me, I wanted to call you and say that I don’t deserve to be picked.’”
Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland have also announced their sides for the World Championships and it will be interesting to see how teams compete against their rivals in this year’s World Championships event scheduled from September 19-25.
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