Pozzato to lead Katusha in Britain

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Filippo Pozzato will lead Team Katusha at the Tour of Britain, which begins in Scunthorpe, England, on September 12. The Italian champion's involvement was announced on Thursday, as Katusha confirmed their participation in the eight-stage race. They will be joined at the race by fellow ProTour team Rabobank and Continental teams Joker-Bianchi and ISD-Neri.

Despite it being Katusha's first participation at the Tour, Pozzato has fond memories of his previous participations. He won stage three of the 2006 race while racing for former team, Quick Step. He will be joined this time in Britain by Vladimir Karpets, Danilo Napolitano, Evgueni Petrov and British rider Ben Swift. The Russian team is yet to name the final member of their six man roster.

Swift, who has raced in each of the previous two editions of the race, said he was keen to secure a maiden victory in his home tour. "It is good we now have our own national tour, which each year is getting bigger and bigger," he said. "If I can get my first win in the Tour of Britain [this year], that would make it quite special."

Rabobank will be led by former Tour of Britain winner Mauricio Ardila. The Columbian was the inaguaral winner of the race in 2004 and will be expected to figure in the overall as Australian Graeme Brown covers the sprint finishes. The two riders will be supported in Britain by Stef Clement, Laurens ten Dam, Grischa Niermann and Joost Posthuma.

Tour of Ireland stage winner Lars Petter Nordhaug has been named in the Joker-Bianchi squad. The Norweigian, who finished second overall in Ireland, will travel to Britain with compatriots Alexander Kristoff, Frederik Willmann, Stian Remme, Sondre Sortveit and Vegard Stake Laengen.

ISD-Neri will be represented by Bartozs Huzarsky, Ruslan Pidgornyy, Oleksandr Kvachuk, Denys Kostyuk, Vitaliy Kondrut and recent signing, Australian Simon Clarke.

Today's announcement of the four additional teams now completes the line-up for the Tour of Britain. The teams taking part in the sixth edition of the race will be: Agritubel, AG2R La Mondiale, Barloworld, CandiTV-Marshalls Pasta, Cervélo Test Team, CSF Group-Navigare, Euskaltel–Euskadi, ISD-Neri, Joker-Bianchi, Team Katusha, Garmin-Slipstream, Rabobank, Rapha-Condor, Team Columbia – HTC, Team Halfords-Bikehut, Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator and Vancansoleil.

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