The 2016 season is just around the corner and Lampre-Merida is about to end their first team meeting in Darfo Boario Terme which started last Monday and ends today. The Italians have already selected their team for the Tour Down Under, the first event of the WorldTour calendar in Australia from January 19 to 24. The team will head to Adelaide on January 6.

Lampre-Merida’s selection show that they want to start strongly. Diego Ulissi (who won a stage in 2014), Manuele Mori, Louis Meintjes (the promising new signing from South Africa who was 10th in the Vuelta), Federico Zurlo, Mario Kump (who won 18 races with Adria Mobil in 2015) and Ethiopian Tsgaby Grmay are six of the seven riders in the team for the Tour Down Under.

Brent Copeland’s team will be back in action after a good year that included 31 victories, including seven grand tour stages, and will continue to focus on young riders despite having lost Niccolo Bonifazio to Trek. In addition to Meintjes, they have signed Matej Mohorič, U23 world champion in Florence in 2014.Lampre-Merida will again be the only Italian team in the WorldTour and will have a very international profile with 10 different nationalities.