Support for Hondo

By Susan Westemeyer

German Danilo Hondo got a vote of confidence from his new employer, Italian Gianni Savio, with whom he signed on November 26.

"I am sure that he will use fair and clean means to reach the sporting goals, which makes him so important and valuable to our team," said Diquigiovanni-Androni Team Manager Savio to the dpa agency. "We paid sharp attention to the signing of Danilo Hondo," he continued. "We decided to trust him and to give him this chance."

Hondo's last team was Tinkoff Credit Systems.

The dpa also added that UCI President Pat McQuaid had said that he had met twice recently with Hondo, who had showed himself ready to support the fight against doping.