Moletta puts troubles behind, signs with Miche

By Gregor Brown

Andrea Moletta took another step in putting the troubles of 2008 behind him last week. The former Gerolsteiner rider signed a one-year contract with Team Miche-Silver Cross.

"I had offers from other teams, but they were the only ones who put faith in me. Others wrongly associated my name with problems," he said to Cyclingnews.

Gerolsteiner cut Moletta from its Giro d'Italia team after the police questioned him. The team placed him on inactive status after it found out that Italian Guardia Finanza stopped his father and questioned him about Viagra tablets and unidentified fluids it had found.

Both father and son denied any knowledge of participation in any doping. A Padova prosecutor finally shelved the case against Moletta in November, though he did not race this year after May 20.

"It is another step ahead, putting the problems of 2007 and 2008 behind. I had the bad crash in Milano-Sanremo in 2007, maybe that was worse than 2008."

He acknowledged that Miche is a Continental, third division, team and that it will not have the opportunities to race the sport's biggest races. The team will race most of the Italian races and some races in France. He intends on having results immediately into the 2009 season.