The President of Liquigas Sport, Polo Dal Lago, announced that Liquigas will continue to sponsor and own a team for two more years and confirmed that both Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali have re-signed with the Italian ProTour team for another two years.
"We're very happy to announce the renewal of our sponsorship. We think cycling is the best means to promote our brand," Dal Lago said.
Liquigas-Doimo Team Manager Roberto Amadio confirmed that Basso and Nibali represent the future of the team.
"They're the two riders that best represent our vision of athletes. They're the first two bricks that we've laid to rebuild the team so that we can remain one of the elite teams in cycling," Amadio said.
During the press conference, both Dal Lago and Amadio said they still have total faith in Franco Pellizotti despite the UCI asking the Italian Cycling Federation to investigate him following suspicious values discovered under the UCI Biological Passport system.
"If Pellizotti's case is archived, he will race with us for the Italian national championships and the Tour de France. We'll have 15 riders at a training camp at the Passo San Pellegrino next week and Franco will be there. He is not suspended and is still part of the team," Amadio said.
Dal Lago and Amadio criticized the UCI regarding the Biological Passport, without going into specific details, and defended the medical staff of the Liquigas team.
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"We believe the Biological Passport is poorly managed, and I'm not afraid to say that. It's very clear how they've managed it," Dal Lago said.
"We're not going to go on a crusade but we will defend our investment, be it Beltran or the UCI."
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
