Italy's Universal Caffe' is born
By Tim Maloney, European Editor
For years, Italian race promoter Antonio Iacovazzi had been thinking about creating a pro cycling team. He had observed many teams at his race, the Criterium d'Abruzzo and when the opportunity arose early this year, Iacovazzi seized it and put together the new Continental Pro team Universal Caffe', a Pescara, Italy based coffee producer.
"I'm happy to finally be able to put this team together; so now, we want to do something different with the Universal Caffe' team", Iacovazzi told Cyclingnews from his office in Spoltore, Italy, the hometown of top pro Danilo Di Luca. Currently 12 riders strong with Sicilian Giuseppe Di Grande as leader and Giuseppe Lanzoni as direttore sportivo, Universal Caffe' has host of other good riders like Belohvosciks, Pugaci, Duma and Swedish comebacker Niklaas Axelsson. The modest Universal Caffe' formation may also add former Tour of Langkawi winner Gabriele Missaglia to the roster. Iacovazzi's new squad will ride Bianchi bicycles and debuts next month at the Giro d'Oro and Giro del Trentino in Italy.
