The German Milram has sent a young squad to the Vuelta a España in search of stage victories. Led by Erik Zabel, who may be retiring at the season's end, the rest of the team is so new that even with its 38-year-old captain, the average age of the nine-man squad is just 25. The team includes Artur Gajek (23), Christian Kux (23) and Sebastian Schwager (24), Martin Velits (23) and Matej Jurco (22), Andrey Grivko (25) and Volodymyr Diudia (25) and Fabio Sabatini (23).
Diudia, the winner of the UCI World Cup classification in the individual pursuit was fourth overall in that event at the Olympic Games, and will add firepower for the opening team time trial, as will four-time Slovakian time trial champion Jurco. Grivko, a former Ukrainian champion, had two narrow misses at stage wins in the South African Worlds View challenge in February, and could have a chance from a breakaway.
