In hindsight, 2004 was a crucial year for Lampre Fondital. ‘Gibo’ speerheaded this team in the Giro, the most important Italian race. But that Giro saw the rise of a new star, namely Damiano Cunego. Not Simoni, but “helper” Cunego won the Giro! An angry Simoni tried to take revenge in 2005, but failed to do so. Although Cunego couldn’t win too, it was clear this Italian team wouldn’t have more internal duels between riders. Cunego, by far the junior of the two, remained with Lampre to be their clear contender for the Giro, and possibly, the other grand tours. Saunier Duval acted quickly and snatched Gilberto Simoni before any other team could offer him a contract. In that way, conflicts inside Lampre were avoided.


You might consider Lampre to be a weaker team without ‘Gibo’, but they have been signing some good riders to replace all the riders that have left. The demise of Fassa Bortolo was their opportunity to sign Marzio Bruseghin. Performing well in the 2005 Giro, a strong time triallist and one of the speerheads for races like the Tirreno Adriatico, he should help Lampre in a big way. Another big name is Tadej Valjavec (Phonak). Valjavec too was strong in the 2005 edition of the Giro, but he was probably signed to head the team in the Tour de France. That race has always been one of his great “loves”, so he’ll try to do well in the French mountains. Both riders will of course support Cunego in his search for a second Giro win. Tiralongo came over from Panaria to also aid Cunego in the Giro and we might see him go for one or two stages as well during this season.


2005 saw a new sprinter emerge from mediocraty. Daniele Bennati, finally rid of “Emperor” Cipollini, had his way and strung together an impressive number of wins. This season we will probably see him sprinting with the big guns for the first time. In support, Lampre has many riders. New signing Claudio Corioni (Fassa) has already had a win in 2005, and is fast himself. The LPR team provided them with promising new and fast finishers like Santambrogio and Napolitano. With additions like these, Gerrit Glomser (Voralberg-Volksbank) won’t be missed at all.


With the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia well catered for, the Vuelta a España will welcome local boy ‘Patxi’ Vila. Together with the likes of Figueras their hopes won’t be as high as for the other two grand tours, but don’t count them out just yet. Bruseghin, Valjavec or even Cunego might be there in support. Another name to mention is Marco Marzano. He won the “Baby-Giro” in the Under 23 category a few years back. Another talent who’s been pushed forward slowly by his team, we might see much more of him soon.


Bonomi (Barloworld) never really fulfilled his potential with Lampre and has moved on. Another important man for the team is Alessandro Ballan. Quite fast himself, he helped Bennati win a lot of races, but more importantly, he is a strong competitor in the classics. Especially the cobble stone races suit him, so he can trust to his fast finishing if he’s with the leading group, aided by track specialist Enrico Franzoi.
Apart from Simoni, the team has also lost Eddy Mazzoleni (T-Mobile) and oldtimer Bortolami (unknown). Mazzoleni performed quite well in both Giro and Tour, so he will be missed. The “new kids on the block” will try to make Lampre forget these guys and look to the future which is very bright, no doubt!


Additions to the team:
Marzio Bruseghin, Claudio Corioni, Matteo Carrara, Ruggero Marzoli, Danilo Napolitano, Mauro Santambrogio, Paolo Tiralongo,Tadej Valjavec, Matteo Bono, Morris Possoni


Left the team:
Giosuè Bonomi, Oleksandr Kvachuk, Samuele Marzoli, Eddy Mazzoleni, Gilberto Simoni, Alessandro Spezialetti, Gerrit Glomser, Andreas Matzbacher, Andrea Tonti, Gianluca Bortolami, Juan Fuentes Angulo