91rst Giro d'Italia - Team High Road Announced
Ambitious plans for the American team. A strong squad from the California based team with talent for stage wins and the overall.

"Racing well in the Giro d’Italia is a primary goal for Team High Road,” said Bob Stapleton. “We’re sending a very strong line up to a race with great tradition and a bright future. It’s also a personal favorite for our riders and management alike.”

The team’s roster includes:
· Marco Pinotti who wore the Maglia Rosa at the Giro d’Italia in 2007
· Promising young Italian climber Morris Possoni
· Winner of the Tour de Georgia and a former U23 World Champion, Kanstantin Sivtsov
· Frantisek Rabon, who will line up at the Giro for the third time and was instrumental in helping Marco Pinotti in 2007.
· Australian TT champion Adam Hansen who has had an excellent start to the season
· Young Tony Martin who had a great epic victory in Ronde Van Mergelland alongside teammate Adam Hansen
· Andre Greipel who got the season off to a good start for High Road by winning five stages of the Tour Down Under and taking the ProTour leaders jersey
· World Pursuit and Madison Champion Bradley Wiggins who will be a favorite for the Prologue
· Top sprinter Mark Cavendish who is looking forward to proving himself in a Grand Tour

“The chance to wear the pink jersey again is hugely important for me,” explained Marco Pinotti.
“My race condition is much better than this time last year. I’m going well and the team is in great shape. It will be harder for me to get the pink jersey due to the fact that I’ll be watched more, but my self-confidence is a lot higher, too. And that goes for the whole team.”

The riders are very motivated for the race. Ambitious as always, Team High Road has multiple objectives for the Giro: amongst them are to repeat of 2007’s spell in the leader’s jersey for Marco Pinotti, stage wins with Mark Cavendish, victory in the opening team time trial and a serious crack at the general classification with Tour of Georgia winner Kanstantin Sivtzov.

“Marco’s Giro lead was a really important personal achievement last year,” said lead Team Director for the Giro, Valerio Piva. “Last year he proved he could stay with the strongest riders in the mountains and rode consistently well throughout. He’ll want to do the same again in 2008. High Road also puts a huge emphasis on working with our young, up-and-coming riders and Kanstantin is one of them.”

“At Georgia he surprised a lot of people, but not us on the team. We knew how hard he’d been training this spring; we could see how lean he was - and how good his form was. At Georgia it all finally came together. Who knows what could happen at the Giro?”

“We all love this race and are happy to be bringing such a strong roster,” said lead Team Director for the Giro, Valerio Piva. “The team has had great success already this year and we hope to bring our enthusiasm and more success to the Giro.”
For more information on Team High Road please visit www.highroadsports.com

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