Ambitions, scandals and a world champion

“We have to keep stepping it up,” South African team manager Copeland told VeloNews, in response to his to the fact that his Italian team is always considered less good than Cannondale

Copeland is not satisfied with the current situation, and admits that Lampre has lacked behind Cannondale.

“I agree, but that’s also because of the budget. If you have a good budget, then you can buy riders that are competitive in the three grand tours and get points,” Copeland said. “Now, with the help of Merida and Lampre, we tried to re-enforce the team to get points.”

Copeland was hired this summer from MTN-Qhubeka, and is ready to give his best for his new team.

“They said that they wanted to make the team more international,” Copeland explained. “They have more international sponsors and the English language is more important for the team.”

Lampre finished fourteenth in the UCI rankings the season, and has in general lacked significant results during the last seasons. Copeland is aware of his responsibility, and is also ready to initiate changes.

“Cycling is a business, you can’t run it like it used to be 10 or 15 years ago,” Copeland said. “Without losing the Italian team’s roots, which are important, a new aspect and a new way of running things is good. Italians are scared of changes and don’t take them well. That’s the team idea, to bring me in and force the changes.”

The South African is also worried about the ongoing Mantova investigation, and how it will affect Lampre’s public image.

“It’s not a great image for the team,” Copeland explained. “With the Italian system, you never know how long this can go on for. It’s not great. The people involved and under investigation in this trial, we don’t want to be completely in this team. We are looking at that now.”

Nonetheless, the fact remains that Lampre is sitting on the road race World Champion next year, and Rui Costa will very likely change both their luck and public image around.