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Bennati to ride Flanders

Published: Apr. 3, 2009

Daniele Bennati isn’t going to let muscle pain keep him out of the Tour of Flanders, though it’s likely he’ll have plenty more of that after Sunday’s punishing course.

The Liquigas sprinter confirmed he will race Sunday despite some lingering pain from a crash dating back to the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Team doctors said Bennati was suffering from intense muscle pain in his right thigh, which flared up again during this week’s Three Days of De Panne.

Bennati, however, insists on racing and the team is standing by his decision.

“Daniele absolutely doesn’t want to miss it and, according with the medical staff, we have decided to support his decision. During the three days of De Panne, until the pain became acute again, he showed a good condition. It is agreed that we will value during the race if the conditions allow him to continue,” said directeur sportif Stefano Zanatta. “The first appointments in Belgium showed that the team is growing and a lot of riders are in good form: Willems, Quinziato, Franzoi, Fischer and Kuchynski. It will be difficult win but, for sure, we will not start already lost.”

The team will also count on Frederick Willems, who won De Panne this week in the final Flanders warm-up race.

In other team news, Ivan Basso and other teammates arrived on the Spanish island of Tenerife for a two-week altitude training camp to prepare for the Ardennes classics and the Giro d’Italia.

Liquigas for Tour of Flanders

Daniele Bennati
Maciek Bodnar
Murilo Fischer
Enrico Franzoi
Aleksandr Kuschynski
Manuel Quinziato
Daniel Oss
Frederik Willems