Australia's Cameron Wurf will leave Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni for the Liquigas-Doimo team in 2011, Cyclingnews learned today. The 27-year-old signed a one-year contract with the ProTour squad today.
At the Vuelta a España, team director Mario Scirea confirmed the signing of Wurf, a former rower who represented Australia at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and switched to cycling in 2006.
"A team like ours need great workers like him," said Scirea, who suggested that Wurf could become the next Australian dedicated domestique like Neil Stephens or Matt White have been in the past.
The Tasmanian showed his talents during the 2010 Giro d'Italia where worked for team leader Michele Scarponi, who took fourth place overall and a stage win in Aprica. He garnered significant attention with his work on stage 11 to L'Aquila, where he dropped back from the breakaway to help bring down the advantage of the 56-man move, nearly singlehandedly setting pace for 100km. Since the Giro, Wurf was courted by several Italian teams.
He met at the Vuelta with directeur sportif Stefano Zanatta, as team manager Roberto Amadio was with the team in Canada preparing the team for tomorrow's ProTour race in Quebec.
"I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to ride for Liquigas-Doimo," Wurf said. "I've been impressed by their headquarters. Everything seems so professional." The interest Liquigas-Doimo had for Wurf was actually revealed earlier this week by Ivan Basso in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. As well as Cadel Evans and a few other pro cyclists, they are both coached by Aldo Sassi.
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