Astana's Vincenzo Nibali missed out on the Velo d'Or prize but continues to collect prizes and awards at home in Italy. He was honoured at the recent Gran Gala di Conegliano and has now been confirmed as the winner of the 41st Giglio d'Oro in Tuscany.
It is the fourth time Nibali has won the Giglio d'Oro. He will also collect a further prize for having won the Italian national title. The Giglio d'Oro awards will be held on November 24 at the Ristorante Carmagnini del ‘500 a Pontenuovo di Calenzano, above Florence. Nibali will be at a short training camp with his Astana team and so is expcted to collect the award in person. The special Gino Bartali award will be given to the family of the former Italian national coach Alfredo Martini who died during the summer.
Oliveira extends with Lampre-Merida but no news on Horner
The Lampre-Merida team continues to announce its rider roster for the 2015 season but there is no sign that Chris Horner will have a place in the Italian squad.
On Monday, Lampre-Merida announced that Portugal national road race and time trial champion Nelson Oliveira has signed a new contract. He is a key teammate for former world champion Rui Costa and finished seventh in the world time trial championships in Ponferrada. The 25-year-old has yet to win a race but finished the Tour de France in 2014.
"I'm very happy to have signed the prolongation of the contract for the next year," Oliveira said in press release from the team. “When you really enjoy to race in a team, your aim is to go on to be part of it: my ambition was to continue to be a blue-fuchsia-green cyclist, so I'm satisfied that Lampre-Merida decided I could be part of the 2015 roster. I will work hard to accomplish my goals and the ones of the team."
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Cofidis to use Orbea bikes in 2015
Spanish bike brand Orbea has confirmed that it will be the bike sponsor of the Cofidis team in 2015, when the French squad will have sprinter Nacer Bouhanni as team leader.
The Basque Country-based company was the long-time bike sponsor of the Euskadi WorldTour team that folded in 2013 and also backs Team Novo Nordisk, Fundación Euskadi, the US-based women’s team FCS.
Cofidis used Look bikes in 2014 but will switch to Orbea as part of a two-year agreement. Bouhanni and his teammates will use the new Orca road bike and the Ordu time trial bike. Cofidis will also use Orbea R10 helmet and work closely with the team to develop special bikes for sprinting, mountain stages and time trials.
