Lampre unites team at first camp

By Gregor Brown

Team Lampre will unite its members next month at Boario Terme, Italy, in the first of its camps for the 2009 season. Damiano Cunego and Alessandro Ballan will meet their new teammates and will plan for the coming year.

"The four days are useful to unite the team and get to know each other; the new guys to get to know the old guard," said the team's Directeur Sportif Maurizio Piovani to Cyclingnews.

The team of Giuseppe Saronni will hold the camp, December 9 to 12, at a wellness resort near Brescia. It is primarily a meeting to fit the new members – like Enrico Gasparotto, Mauro Da Dalto and Pietro Caucchioli – for gear and perform medical checks.

"The new guys are fitted for their bikes. We will have team meetings and look over the materials – like the clothing. There is Gasparotto, Da Dalto and a few neo-professionals; we get together with them and put in place all the pieces for 2009. With the others, who have been with us for years, there is not a lot of work to do."

The cyclists will ride together for the first time as a team on the roads around Lago d'Iseo. Some of them will be further along in their 2009 preparations, though the second and third camps focus more on training.

"Those who are starting early, in Qatar or Australia, will certainly already be training. After the medical visits, et cetera, they will be on their bikes or at the gym. It will not be four days of only eating."