Italian teams ISD-Neri and Lampre-Farnese Vini will switch sponsors for 2011, with the Ukraine steel company ISD set to become joint first sponsor at the Lampre ProTour team and Farnese Vini becoming the first sponsor for the smaller Professional Continental team.
Lampre announced the link-up with ISD last week and Angelo Citracca confirmed to Cyclingnews that Farnese Vini will replace them at his team. Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Mario Cipollini's bike company would be the second sponsor and bike supplier. However Citracca said that pickled-vegetable company Neri was likely to stay as second sponsor.
Both teams will keep their respective team leaders after Damiano Cunego signed a new contract with Giuseppe Saronni and Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti opted to stay with the Tuscan-based Professional Continental squad.
As part of the exchange, five riders and several Ukrainian team staff are set to move to Lampre for 2011. The riders are: Denys Kostyuk, Dmitry Krivtsov, Alexander Kvachuk, Vitaly Kondrut and Ruslan Pidgornyy.
Citracca told Cycingnews that he has re-signed sprinter Oscar Gatto and Germany's Patrick Sinkewitz for 2011 and added Thomas Bertolini, Francesco Failli and veteran Andre Noe'.
Thanks to the sponsor changes, Lampre hopes to have a stronger ProTour team in 2011, while Citracca hopes his team can secure an invitation to the 2011 Giro d'Italia and the Ardennes classics.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
