Filippo Pozzato will spend the next two seasons Angelo Citracca's Southeast team after three poor at Lampre-Merida. "Yes, I signed for two seasons with Southeast," Pozzato told La Gazzetta dello Sport. Hence, he will be reunited with Luca Scinto and Citracca who both helped him reinvigorate his career with the Farnese team in 2012.

Pozzato acknowledges that he has not beaan at his best level in 2014 and 2015. "I have to think about riding rather than talking. The last two seasons have been bad, but if I thought that I can no longer be competitive, I would quitely have stopped and started to do other things. Instead, I'm here and motivated like never before," he said.

"Is the move to a ProConti team a step down? I don't think so. The important thing is to participate in races that interest me and in that sense we are very confident. I think the team can grow and grow much," he added.

This week, Giuseppe Saronni, managed at Lampre-Merida, spoke about Pozzato's farewell. "I heard that Saronni said I was free to do what I want. I want to laugh, but I prefer not to talk about that, at least not now," he said.

Jakub Marceczko and Manuel Belletti are the other prominent Southeast riders in a team that has signed Navarre Enrique Sanz (Movistar Team), Julen Amézqueta (Café Baqué-Campos), Cristian Rodriguez (Caja Rural-RGA) and Daniel Martinez (Team Colombia).

The Italian, 34, has taken victories at Milan-San Remo (2006) and Tirreno-Adriatico (2003), two stages in the Tour de France (2004 and 2007), a stage in the Giro d'Italia (2010), was Italian champion in 2009 and won the cobbled classics Het Volk (2007) and E3 (2009). His latest victories date back to 2013. He was also second in the Tour of Flanders in 2012 and in Paris-Roubaix in 2009.

His teams are Mapei (2000-2011), Fassa Bortolo (2003-2004), QuickStep (2005-2066), Liquigas (2007-2008), Katusha (2009-2011), Farnese Vini (2012) and Lampre-Merida (2013-2015).