 |
|
|
|
|
|
Pssst! Insider News
17/05/2024
Dear Team MILRAM Fans,
Team MILRAM has been in existence for more than four months now and time has really flown by. So far we’ve been able to achieve considerable success with the young team: We won a total of 16 races and came in second or third almost as many times – that’s quite a very good result! Surely those good results are as much due to the harmony in Team MILRAM as to the remarkable performance of a few top riders.
Speaking for myself, I can only say that it wasn’t easy for me to settle into the new team at the beginning – a new sponsor, international teammates from all over Europe, many new languages. But in just a short time I’ve found myself getting along well with my teammates, whether they’re Italian, German, Kazakh or Dutch. Without a doubt, Erik Zabel has helped me out a lot there, especially athletically. Working with him is really fantastic. He has demonstrated a great deal of professionalism by helping me to victory on more than one occasion. I really appreciated his support at Milan–San Remo. But the rest of the team has also displayed team spirit time and again. With the great help of my teammates I was able to win all five stages and thus claim overall victory at the ODDSET Tour.
Unfortunately, the team hasn’t just experienced triumphs and successes. We’ve also had to cope with a few bad injuries and accidents. First, Mirko Celestino broke his right clavicle during the second stage of the Paris–Nice Tour. Then my most important support rider, Marco Velo, crashed at the ODDSET Tour, fracturing his clavicle in three places. And then bad luck caught up with me: I crashed during the third stage of the Giro d’Italia and broke my left kneecap. I had to withdraw from the rest of the Giro, and I won’t be able to compete in the Tour de France either. Just now, when I am at an athletic peak, I had to suffer the worst injury of my career. Coping with such a thing is not particularly easy. I made it well through knee surgery in Pisa, and I’ll be able to start rehab by mid June. If all goes well, I hope to be fit again and competing in the Tour of Germany in August.
I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to returning to the asphalt and scoring more wins for our team. I still have a few more years left in professional cycling – and there’s still a lot to accomplish with the new team. Our goal, which you all know already, is to make this new team into one of the best in the world. On a personal level, my goals remain the same: getting back into good shape and winning some races for the team. I think and hope that I’ll be able to achieve the greater part of those goals. For myself and my fans, for my teammates and for MILRAM.
Keep crossing your fingers for us!
Alessandro
|
|
|
|
