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Milan-San Remo expanded to 25 teams

Published: Mar. 19, 2008
The Milan-San Remo peloton in the care-free past.
The Milan-San Remo peloton in the care-free past.
Photo: Graham Watson

Milan-San Remo will have an extra team after all, but it won’t be Rock Racing.

Just a day after Mario Cipollini cut ties with the American team, race organizers of Saturday’s “La Primavera” announced that Miche-Silver Cross would fill the final slot for the classics season opener.

Rock Racing and Cipollini were hoping for a last-minute bid to start Milan-San Remo, a race Cipollini won in 2002, but race organizers opted to go with the San Marino-based continental team instead.

The modest team will bring sprinter Enrico Degano, climber Massimo Giunti, Polish rider Przemyslaw Niemec and Eddy Serri, winning of the Giro di Mendrisiotto last weekend in Italy.

Race organizers RCS Sport opted out of the ProTour calendar last fall and was free to decide which teams it would invite to its marquee events, which also include the Giro d’Italia, Tirreno-Adriatico and Giro di Lombardia.

The only ProTour team to receive the snub was Astana, which was also sidelined for the Giro and Tirreno.

Both Slipstream-Chipotle and High Road will be at the start line Saturday in Milan.

Teams for Milan-San Remo

Ag2r-La Mondiale (Fra)
Barloworld (GBr)
Bouygues Telecom (Fra)
Caisse d’Epargne (Spa)
Cofidis (Fra)
Crédit Agricole (Fra)
CSF Group-Navigare (Ita)
Diquigioanni-Androni (Ven)
Euskaltel (Spa)
Francaise des Jeux (Fra)
Gerolsteiner (Ger)
High Road (USA)
Lampre (Ita)
Liquigas (Ita)
LPR Brakes (Irl)
Miche-Silver Cross (SMR)
NGC Medical-OTC (Swi)
Quick Step (Bel)
Rabobank (Ned)
Saunier Duval (Spa)
Silence-Lotto (Bel)
Slipstream-Chipotle (USA)
Team CSC (Den)
Team Milram (Ger)
Tinkoff (Ita)