Cannondale to sign Marcato and Gatto for 2014

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The Cannondale team is set to sign Italian riders Marco Marcato and Oscar Gatto for 2014 as it looks to boost it’s squad for the cobbled Classics and to support team leader Peter Sagan.

Gatto joins from the troubled Vini Fantini-Selle Italia team. He won Dwars door Vlaanderen this spring and famously held off a chase by Alberto Contador to win a stage at the 2011 Giro d’Italia. He finished third in the GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano but failed to perform in the second half of the season. He can help Sagan in the cobbled Classics, as he did with Filippo Pozzato in 2012, and in the sprint finishes or even win himself.

Marcato rode for the now defunct Vacansoleil-DCM team in 2013. He did not win a race but was consistent, finishing in the top ten on 13 occasions. In 2012 he won Etoile de Besseges stage race and the Paris-Tours one-day Classic.

Cannondale manager Roberto Amadio has promised to boost the strength of the Cannondale team to support Sagan despite failing to reach an agreement to bring on board Tinkoff Credit Systems as a second sponsor.

Sagan’s contact ends in 2014 but the team is desperate to retain him because the Slovakian won more than half of the team’s victories and ranking points in 2013. Ivan Basso, Moreno Moser and sprinter Elia Viviani will all be part of the 2014 Cannondale line-up alongside Sagan.