Mazzanti rolls on with Tinkoff

Italian Luca Mazzanti will enter his 12th season as a professional with Professional Continental Team Tinkoff Credit Systems. The 33 year-old from Bologna is currently with the team managed by Stefano Feltrin at its pre-2008 training camp. Like with Team Ceramica Panaria, he plans to give the same respect to his work and passion for the coming season.

"I am made this way: I don't race for training, I race to win," said Mazzanti in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport's Marco Pastonesi. One is hard-pressed to recall when the rider has pulled out of a race, as he is always seen arriving under the finishing banner. "To win is not just to arrive at the line first. To win is to give all of me no matter what. So, when looking at the finishing order, I win infrequently, I place often – or a lot – and I never abandon."

He has won ten races in his career, his last was at the beginning of this year, the GP di Lugano, ahead of Tinkoff's Evgeni Petrov in third.

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"I don't keep count," he continued on the number of races he has abandoned. "They tell me that in the last five years with Ceramica Panaria I have always finished the races. ... There is an exception: the Tre Valli Varesine this year. There were a dozen up the road with the group behind. When the group decided to stop, I did not feel the need to pedal on for another three hours, alone, under the rain." The day was marked by brutal weather conditions that saw the race organisers shorten the parcours.

He will take his experience to a squadra made up of mostly young riders. "The more the years pass the more I train. Every year, I ride 30 to 35 thousand kilometres. Never less, and maybe more," he continued. "It is a team with a lot of young rides. I will use my experience from 11 years as a professional; I will take my chances in the one-day races, also in Flèche [Wallonne] and Liège [-Bastogne-Liège]. It is important to remain up front, then you never know; maybe the favourites are watching and if not then I will take advantage."