Lampre-Merida have announced a young and competitive line-up for the Vuelta a Espana.
Sports directors Simone Pedrazzini and Bruno Vicino (who'll be supported by Daniele Righi) will direct these nine riders:
- Arashiro Yukiya: 31 years old, Japanese, 1 participation in the Vuelta
- Cattaneo Mattia, 25 years old, Italian, 1 participation in the Vuelta
- Conti Valerio: 23 years old, Italian, 2 participations in the Vuelta
- Costa Mario: 30 years old, Portuguese, debut
- Durasek Kristijan: 29 years old, Croatian, 1 participation in the Vuelta
- Grmay Tsgabu Gebremaryam: 24 years old, Ethiopian, 1 participation in the Vuelta
- Koshevoy Ilia: 25 years old, Bealrusian, 1 participation in the Vuelta
- Meintjes Louis: 24 years old, South African, 2 participations in the Vuelta
- Zurlo Federico: 22 years old, Italian, debut
Substitutes: Marko Kump and Przemyslaw Niemiec.
LAMPRE-MERIDA will represent 7 nations in the Vuelta (Belarus, Croatia, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Portugal and South Africa) and three continents (Africa, Asia and Europe). The average age of the blue-fuchsia-green line-up will be fairly low, 25,8 years old.
Most focus will be on Louis Meintjes, who was 10th in the 2015 Vuelts and who improved that peformance with the 8th place in the Tour de France. In the Vuelta, Meintjes' target will be stages victories: he'll have several opportunities considering the bunch of mountain stages in the Spanish race.
He'll rely on good climbers such as Cattaneo, Conti, Durasek and Koshevoy, who'll all be also able to join the breakaways in the most demanding stages.
Grmay's level of experience in the grand tours is very good, having completed each of the tours in which he made his debut (Giro d'Italia 2015, Tour de France 2016 and Vuelta a Espana 2015), and he's ready to try to achieve a stage victory.
Thanks to their ability to join the breakaways and thanks to their speed, Arashiro and Zurlo will be important riders for their sports directors, and Mario Costa will be ready to give his support to the team mates.
Emilian BROE 38 years | today |
Carlos CORTI 37 years | today |
Paolo LONGO BORGHINI 44 years | today |
Stefan GANSER 46 years | today |
Hannah MAYHO 34 years | today |
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