The Italian team has lost sprinter Sacha Modolo, who will ride for Lampre-Merida but is hoping its young Italian riders will develop and improve in 2014 after showing signs of their talent in 2013.
The average of the 17-rider team will be just 24, with Enrico Battaglin stepping up as the team leader. He won stage four of the Giro d’Italia, beating Fabio Felline, Giovanni Visconti and Rigoberto Uran in the uphill sprint, before crashing out of the Giro on stage 14.
Marco Coledan will be expected to have an important role in the sprints or lead out his teammates. He uses his track skills and speed on the road and won the individual pursuit event at the recent Manchester track World Cup. Stefano Pirazzi is Bardiani-CSF’s man for the mountain breakaways and won the blue mountain’s jersey at this year’s Giro d’Italia.
New singings include Paolo Colonna, who won the Italian championship for Elite riders without a professional contract in June, Andrea Manfredi, Andrea Piechele and sprinter Nicola Ruffoni.
“We’re ready for a new season and we hope it’ll as good as the one that has just ended. We’re an Italian team and so out goal is to again secure a wild card invitation to the WorldTour races and especially the Giro d’Italia," team manager Bruno Reverberi said.
“We’re going to continue with our #greenteam project, aimed at developing young Italian riders. We’ve got a solid base of young talent who are set to do great things in 2014.”
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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).
