Liquigas’ manager Amadio didn’t have much to complain about in the 2005 season. Only halfway through the season and the first ProTour title is almost certainly sown up.
The “Killer” from Spoltone (Italy) had a brilliant spring, winning two classics, an excellent Tour of the Basque Country and Giro d’Italia, which makes Danilo Di Luca the clear leader. Finally, he got the points needed later on in the season and made Italy and his manager proud. This title wasn’t really on the cards, because Di Luca didn’t have a good 2003 and 2004 season. His comeback was impressive though. He’ll be a force to take into account in de 2006 Giro and probably some other races too.


Having said that, Liquigas doesn’t have too many “killers” in their squad. What’s more, they lack just that type of rider. Although the potential of the team is good, only Enrico Gasparotto gave them something to cheer about, apart from Di Luca’s wins of course. ‘Gaspa’ is a good sprinter and will be seen a lot more up front in the mass-sprints.


From the rest just a mediocre performance, with Cipollini (promised he would ride the 2005 Giro as his final Tour) pulling out before the Giro even started. Cioni, a good climber and time triallist, was good in 2004 (Giro) but almost invisible in the 2005 season. Same goes for Pellizotti. He was labelled “Italy’s talent”, but failed to prove true to that label. Even experienced Garzelli didn’t perform as many expected him to do, although he did support Di Luca well in the Giro. Backstedt, their classics man, had one good performance in the spring, but was unfortunate to be involved in a crash in the final stages of the race. So no wins there.


Since a lot of good opportunities were lost, some changes were needed. Pagliarini (Saunier Duval) wasn’t up to par and packed his bags. Zanotti did get some top 10 finishes too, but left for Unibet to team up with Cooke. Improvements to the team are Luca Paolini (Quickstep) who had a brilliant 2nd half of 2005 after injury problems. Paolini can be expected in the sprints, but also in some of the classics races. Pure attacking and fast finishing can also be expected from Manuel Quinziato (Saunier Duval). Spezialetti (Lampre) and Zanini (Quickstep) will back them up. Young prospect Kreuziger also joined team, we’ll have to wait and see how he holds up in the ProTour.


At the start of the 2006 season not everything is hunkidori. Gasparotto comes down with mononucleosis and will probably start training again at the beginning of march. But, having Paolini to take care of the spring races, it doesn’t seem all that bad because the Giro isn’t a sprinters race. In that Giro, Vincenzo Nibali (Fassa) will try and pick out his stage, like he did in 2005. That time he didn’t succeed as a neo-pro, this year he’ll be stronger again and might show us what he’s capable of. First priority with the team though, will be Di Luca. After last years performance, he now thinks he can win the Giro. So he’ll be backed up by his team in full. To be honest, after last years performance, we think the “Killer” might be right! Liquigas might have some worries concerning the rest of the season if the likes of Cioni and Garzelli don’t step up and raise their level from 2005.


Additions to the team:
Francesco Failli, Vincenzo Nibali, Luca Paolini, Manuel Quinziato, Alessandro Spezialetti, Stefano Zanini, Eros Capecchi, Alberto Curtolo, Mauro da Dalto, Roman Kreuziger


Left the team:
Mario Cipollini, Mauro Gerosa, Marcus Ljungqvist, Luciano Pagliarini, Marzo Zanotti, Devis Miorin, Oscar Mason, Gianluca Sironi