LPR signs Mitlushenko

30 year-old Ukrainian Yuriy Mitlushenko has changed teams from Miche to LPR, his new team announced. The sprinter fills the place left by the recently retired Dario Pieri, and will act as a guide for the younger sprinters in the squad.

"Our sprinters, Marzoli and Gavazzi, are young and talented, but perhaps still a little raw for certain situations," said tam manager Omar Piscina. "Mitlushenko is instead an experienced athlete, in a position to fight shoulder to shoulder with the better specialists...I think he will debut already next Sunday in Paris-Roubaix."

Mitlushenko won the GP Costa degli Etruschi in both 2002 and 2004, and described himself as being "very happy to join Team LPR, where it is certain I will find the stimuli that I lacked a little in Miche. In the team, I know Khalilov, our national champion, as well as Muraglia, who I raced with in the amateurs, not to mention Konyshev, a real legend of cycling.