CSC aiming for end of season bang

For Team CSC this weekend's races in Italy, Giro dell'Emilia and GP Beghelli, are primarily about preparing for next weekend's final ProTour race, Giro di Lombardia, while the team hopes to retain its first place overall in the ProTour Rankings in Sunday's Paris-Tours.

"It's no secret that Giro dell'Emilia and GP Beghelli are preparation for Giro di Lombardia, where we have a number of strong cards to play," said sports director Kim Andersen, who is hoping to be on the podium with the team in Lombardy as winners of the UCI ProTour, to team-csc.com.

In Italy, Nicki Sørensen and Schleck are both riding this weekend. Schleck finished as runner up in last year's edition of Giro dell'Emilia. "The race ends in a climb, so it suits Fränk perfectly, but also for Nicki, who has actually been in great shape since the beginning of the Vuelta and most recently in Züri Metzgete," said Andersen. "However this weekend the most important thing is not the result, but rather how we keep on track towards the Giro di Lombardia."

In Paris-Tours the team will be aiming for a good result. "It's a great line-up we have for Paris-Tours as well, so we hope for a good team result in order to retain the overall ProTour lead, and of course I wouldn't mind winning the race. We have a number of World Championship riders in the line-up, and they all did well in Salzburg, so we definitely have a good chance." Andersen will have riders like Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Lars Bak, Karsten Kroon, Marcus Ljungqvist and Stuart O'Grady, who finished third in 2003, while team mate Jakob Piil won Paris-Tours in 2002.

Team roster for GP Beghelli and Emilia: Iñigo Cuesta, Volodymir Gustov, Martin Pedersen, Andrea Peron, Fränk Schleck, Nicki Sørensen, Brian Vandborg.

Team roster for Paris-Tours: Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Lars Bak, Kasper Klostergaard, Karsten Kroon, Marcus Ljungqvist, Lars Michaelsen, Stuart O'Grady and Luke Roberts.