CCC Sprandi Polkowice has received wild card invitations for Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-Sanremo, RCS Sport, the organizer of the two UCI WorldTour events, has announced.
"We are very pleased with the fact that the organizers have appreciated last year's performance, put their trust in us again and invited our team to their races," Piotr Wadecki, sporting director of CCC Sprandi Polkowicem said. - Last season we took part in the Giro d’Italia, Milan – Sanremo, Il Lombardia and Dubai Tour and we can be proud, that the cooperation with RCS Sport is developing so well."
The race of the two seas (March 15-22) will kick off with a 22.7-kilometer team time trial in Lido di Camaiore. In the following days the riders will take on two sprinters' and two hilly stages and one mountain stage which will end with the 13-kilometer climb to Monte San Vicino (avg. 6.6%) and the race will be wrapped up with a 10-kilometer individual TT. The winners of the last 5 editions have always finished in the top 3 in one of the Grand Tours later on so an exceptionally strong line-up can be expected.
In 2001 the overall classification and one of the stages was won by the most experienced CCC Sprandi Polkowice rider, Davide Rebellin. He was also 2nd two years earlier.
In addition to the orange squad, all of the UCI World Tour teams will participate, alongside 4 wild card recipients, Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, Bardiani CSF, Bora-Argon 18 and Caja Rural-Seguros.
Milan-Sanremo is one of the longest and most prestigious one-day races in professional cycling. The route is 293 kilometers long and features two well-known climbs in the finale - Cipressa and Poggio. This is where many attacks occur every year. In 2015, the finish of the race returned to the famous street of Via Roma and it's expected that this is where the decisive sprint will take place in the upcoming edition.
25 teams will participate in Milan-Sanremo (March 19) - 7 of them are Professional Continental squads with wildcards. In addition to CCC Sprandi Polkowice, Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, Bardiani CSF, Bora-Argon 18, Cofidis Solution Credits, Southeast - Venezuela and Team Novo Nordisk have received the nod.
It will be the second consecutive time for the Polkowice based team to tackle that spring classic. Last year two riders in orange arrived at the line in the first group as Grega Bole finished 16th and Maciej Paterski 22nd.
RCS Sport has also announced the list of invited teams for the Giro d'Italia in which CCC Sprandi Polkowice took part in 2015. This time the team was not among the invitees as the management decided to change the racing program.
"Last year's participation was a great experience, a big step, an honor and a very valuable test of sporting and logistics capabilities for us. However, this time we decided not to apply for the wildcard and change our racing program," Wadecki explains.
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