Rogers to lead T-Mobile in Coppi-Bartali

Reigning world time trial champion Michael Rogers will spearhead the T-Mobile squad next week's Settimana Ciclista Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, which begins on Tuesday, March 21, in hilly terrain on the Adriatic coast.

Lining up alongside the 26-year old Australian will be four more riders from T-Mobile's Tour de France core squad, namely Giuseppe Guerini, Serhiy Honchar, Matthias Kessler and Oscar Sevilla. While Rogers and company travel to Italy's Adriatic coast fresh off a training period following their first races, Kessler makes his season debut.

"For us it's important to have our prime Tour candidates racing together already," said Rudy Pevenage in a team statement, who will be the directeur-sportif during the race. "This way they can work on developing good teamwork in a race situation." Rounding out the eight-man squad are the sprinters Olaf Pollack and André Korff, and Aussie all-rounder Scott Davis, the younger brother of Liberty Seguros-Würth rider Allan.

200 riders from 25 teams will start in the holiday resort of Riccione next Tuesday with the opening day a double stage, beginning with a 95,2 km circuit race in the morning followed by a 11,8 km team time trial in the afternoon. The only flat stage in the UCI category 2.1 race is Friday's 184,3 trek from Carpi to Emilia.

Riders: Scott Davis, Giuseppe Guerini, Serhiy Honchar, Matthias Kessler, André Korff, Olaf Pollack, Michael Rogers, Oscar Sevilla.
Directeur-sportif: Rudy Pevenage