Ballan debuts as World Champion in Lazio

Italy's Alessandro Ballan will make his first race appearance as World Champion this Sunday at the Giro del Lazio. Ballan, 28, will line up as leader for Team Lampre.

"We are content that we can line up two of the Worlds' protagonists in Ballan and Damiano Cunego. It would be wonderful to give our supporters another win," said Lampre's directeur sportif, Fabrizio Bontempi.

Emanuele Bindi, Marco Marzano, Daniele Righi, Mauro Santambrogio, Sylvester Szmyd, Paolo Tiralongo and Krzysztof Dabrowski will support the duo.