CSC, Milram, Quickstep for Vuelta

Team CSC has announced its rider roster for the Vuelta a España. Next Saturday in Malaga, the Danish squad will be lining up the following nine riders: Carlos Sastre, Fabian Cancellara, Volodymir Gustov, Lars Bak, Kurt Asle Arvesen, Inigo Cuesta, Marcus Ljungqvist, Nicki Sørensen and Stuart O'Grady.

"To me this is definitely the strongest team we've ever had in the Vuelta," said directeur sportif Kim Andersen. "We have proud traditions from last year with a stage win and podium spot, so there's a lot to live up to. And we can with this team. Carlos Sastre has told us he's top motivated to do well, and that means we have to provide him with the best possible support. He has been tremendous this year and deserves the opportunity to get a great result in the Vuelta. As always it will be a tough race and the spectators can expect some amazing stages for sure."

Andersen added that the selection of riders was not an easy task. "It's definitely not been easy to choose the last few riders and I fully understand if a rider like Jakob Piil is disappointed," he added. "I'm sorry for him, but we've chosen these riders according to what serves the team best and have ended up choosing someone, who is able to work for Carlos in the mountains."

Team Milram's riders for the Vuelta will be the following: Alessandro Petacchi, Erik Zabel, Daniel Becke, Volodymyr Dyudya, Alberto Ongarato, Enrico Poitschke, Fabio Sacchi, Sebastian Siedler and Marco Velo. The Italian supersprinter will thus have the experienced German within his lead out train for the flat stages, and, after healing his knee injury, will be eager to make up for lost opportunities at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.

And finally, Belgian team Quickstep has also announced its participants in the Vuelta: Paolo Bettini, Kevin De Weert, Ad Engels, Josè Antonio Garrido, Kevin Hulsmans, Sebastien Rosseler, Matteo Tosatto, Kevin Van Impe and Davide Viganò will be battling it out in Spain as from this Saturday, directed by Serge Parsani and new DS Davide Bramati.