Riders and staff are scrambling to try to find new jobs in the wake of news last week that the Sony Ericsson deal to take over the sponsorship for Fassa Bortolo fell through.

The mobile communications giant issued a terse statement Friday saying it had no intention of sponsoring a professional racing team despite news that Italian manager Giancarlo Ferretti had already penned more than a dozen riders to long-term contracts.

Ferretti was on the verge of tears when he told La Gazzetta dello Sport that an intermediary had misled him and others in believing that a multi-year, multimillion dollar sponsorship had been approved.

Over the weekend, riders were working the phones to try to salvage a contract for the 2006 season. Aussie classics specialist Stuart O’Grady and domestique Matt White were among those left out to dry.

“It is disappointing, terribly disappointing. Matty White is in the same boat as I am,” O’Grady told The Australian newspaper. “I’ve got my manager working to see what’s still around. While I’m confident we can find a new team, at the moment it doesn’t look good.”

Another rider who was poised to join Ferretti was Gilberto Simoni, a two-time Giro d’Italia champion. Simoni is close to joining Italian continental team Naturino-Sapone, which means the veteran Italian would likely only race the Giro at best and very few of the other top international races.

Others, including Italians Salvatore Commesso and Cristian Moreni, are also looking at trying to join other Italian squads.

In the meantime, Ferretti is back to the drawing board to try to find a new sponsor to take over for Fassa Bortolo, which is ending its long-running sponsorship this season.

With it looking unlikely that Ferretti will be able to find a new sponsor, the final ProTour spot among the 20-team league is up for grabs, with Ag2r looking best positioned to move in.

Di Luca, Team CSC top ProTour dogs
While the jury is still out on success of the new ProTour series, the season ceremoniously came to end with Saturday’s Giro di Lombardia.

Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) won the overall individual title while Team CSC claimed the team prize.

With 229 points, Di Luca won the individual standings thanks to his impressive spring, which included victories at the Tour of the Basque Country, Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallone. His fourth-place finish in the Giro d’Italia gave him a lead he successfully defended in the second half of the season.

He was largely unchallenged in the late running, with only third-place Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) among the top 10 who seemed to take an interest in putting up a fight. Second-place Tom Boonen (Quick Step) at 171 points focused his fall campaign on successfully capturing the world title while grand tour riders Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel), Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) and Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), fourth through seventh, respectively, ended their seasons by August.

Four American riders figured in the top 10, with the now-retired Armstrong fifth; Tour of Germany winner Leipheimer seventh; Paris-Nice, Tour of Benelux champion Bobby Julich (CSC) ninth; and Tour stage-winner and GP Plouay champ George Hincapie (Discovery) in 10th.

UCI officials are already considering changing the points system, which would award more ProTour points for stage victories in the major stage races. Even with the proposed changes, Di Luca still would have won the 2005 title under a new scoring scheme.

Team CSC took the team classification with 390 points after riding with consistency all season, taking podiums in the Tour (second with Ivan Basso) and Vuelta a España (3rd with Carlos Sastre), stage victories in all three grand tours, podiums in the one-day classics (2nd at Liège-Bastogne-Liège with Jens Voigt and 2nd at Zurich and 3rd at Lombardia with Franck Schleck) as well as overall victories at Paris-Nice and the Benelux tour with Julich.

Phonak was second with 353 points and Rabobank third at 349 points. Discovery Channel finished the season ranked eighth with 274 points.

Final 2005 ProTour individual standings
1. Danilo Di Luca (Italy / Liquigas) 229
2. Tom Boonen (Belgium / Quick-Step) 171
3. Davide Rebellin (Italy / Gerolsteiner) 151
4. Jan Ullrich (Germany / T-Mobile) 140
5. Lance Armstrong (United States / Discovery Channel) 139
6. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan / T-Mobile) 136
7. Levi Leipheimer (United States / Gerolsteiner) 131
8. Paolo Bettini (Italy / Quick-Step) 130
9. Bobby Julich (United States / Team CSC) 130
10. George Hincapie (United States / Discovery Channel) 129
11. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy / Fassa Bortolo) 128
12. Gilberto Simoni (Italy / Lampre - Caffita) 111
13. Fraenk Schleck (Luxembourg / Team CSC) 110
14. Denis Menchov (Russia / Rabobank) 109
15. Francisco Mancebo (Spain / Illes Balears) 107
16. Michael Boogerd (Netherlands / Rabobank) 100
17. Cadel Evans (Australia / Davitamon - Lotto) 99
18. Roberto Heras (Spain / Liberty Seguros) 96
19. Santiago Botero (Colombia / Phonak) 95
20. Oscar Freire (Spain / Rabobank) 94

Final 2005 ProTour teams standings
1. Team CSC (Denmark) 390
2. Phonak Hearing Systems (Switzerland) 353
3. Rabobank (Netherlands) 349
4. Davitamon - Lotto - Brustor (Belgium) 322
5. Liberty Seguros - Wurth Team (Spain) 320
6. Team Gerolsteiner (Germany) 303
7. Saunier Duval - Prodir (Spain) 293
8. Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (United States) 274
9. Credit Agricole (France) 264
10. Team Illes Balears - Caisse d'Epargne (Spain) 262
11. Cofidis, Le Credit par Telephone (France) 258
12. Quick-Step - Innergetic (Belgium) 253
13. Fassa Bortolo (Italy) 245
14. T-Mobile Team (Germany) 244
15. Liquigas - Bianchi (Italy) 228
16. Lampre - Caffita System (Italy) 211
17. Bouygues Telecom (France) 183
18. Domina Vacanze - De Nardi (Italy) 161
19. Euskaltel - Euskadi (Spain) 147
20. Francaise des Jeux (France) 130

Casero calls it quits
Spanish veteran Angel Casero has decided to retire rather than return for the 2006 season. According a report on todociclismo.com, the 2001 Vuelta a España will end his career after Comunidad Valenciana staff were unhappy with his performances this season.

Casero, 33, only finished seven of the 13 races he started this season and didn’t score a victory. Last year, Casero was forced to sit out the entire season with Comunidad Valenciana due to contract problems.

A winner of the 1994 Tour de L’Avenir, Casero was once hailed as a successor to Spanish great Miguel Indurain. He finished fifth in the 1999 Tour de France and won the 2001 Vuelta in a final-day time trial at the expense of Oscar Sevilla. He was marred by injury and poor results since then.

Sosenka, Pitel win Herbiers TT
World hour record-holder Ondrej Sosenka won the 24th Chrono des Herbiers to close the French racing calendar on Sunday while Edwige Pitel won the women’s race.

Sosenka, who broke Chris Boardman’s world hour record in July, edged reigning three-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers by three seconds on the 48.15km course. Discovery Channel recruit Vladimir Gusev was third at 18 seconds.

In the women’s race, former two-time winner Pitel held off Swiss rider Prisca Doppmann to win by 34 seconds on a 20.525km course.

Sánchez wins again in Spain
Euskaltel-Euskadi Samuel Sánchez defended his title in the 42nd Escalada a Montjuïc on Sunday to close out the Spanish racing calendar. Carlos Sastre (CSC) won the morning road sector, but Sánchez won the afternoon time trial to win the final major Spanish race of the 2005 season.

Basso-Peron pair up for Italian win
Team CSC’s Ivan Basso and Andrea Peron won Sunday’s team time trial race in the Citta’ di Borgomanero, winning 1:32 ahead of Alessandro Petacchi and Marco Velo (Fassa Bortolo). Third was Marzio Bruseghin and Lorenzo Bernucci (also Fassa) at 2:13.