Equipe Nürnberger for the weekend races

Equipe Nürnberger will be making its 2008 European debut this weekend with two races in Switzerland and Italy. Giro d'Italia winner Edita Pucinskaite will lead the women's team in the Premio Brissago Lago Maggiore and the GP Città di Cornaredo.

The squad opened its season successfully in the Women's Tour of New Zealand, where Suzanne de Goede won the first stage and Trixi Worrack finished fourth overall.

"After the first races abroad, we are looking forward to the races in Europe," said Jens Zemke, the teams sporting director. "The riders will use the upcoming races as a test for the difficult challenges in Spring. The end of the month starts a hard race programme, with five World Cup races in five weeks. We want to be well prepared for that."

The Gran Premio Brissago Lago Maggiore is on Saturday, March 9, and runs 91 km. The GP Citta' di Cornaredo will be held for the first time on Sunday, March 10, and consists of nine laps of a 13 km-long round course.

The team will send Edita Pucinskaite, Christina Becker, Claudia Häusler, Marlen Jöhrend, Larissa Kleinmann and Modesta Vzesniauskaite to the first race, and they will be joined by sprinter Regina Schleicher for Sunday's event.