The Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project has announced that it has recruited the Italian Adriano Baffi as its latest Sports Director. Baffi joins from Team Astana, where he has worked since 2007, and previously was at Phonak when Floyd Landis won the 2006 Tour de France only to be subsequently stripped of the title.
In a long professional career, in which he rode for teams including Mercatone Uno and US Postal Service and also had two spells at Mapei, Baffi won five stages of the Giro d’Italia and one in the Vuelta, but despite racing in the Tour de France on three occasions, the Grand Tour hat-trick eluded him. He was also an accomplished track rider, with a string of six-day victories and Italian national titles to his name.
General Manager Bryan Nygaard said that Baffi’s experience was a key motivation behind his signing, explaining: “From his days as a rider, Adriano proved himself to be one of the great tacticians.
“And since he also worked successfully as a Sports Director on some of the biggest teams in the sport, I have no doubt that he will bring a lot to our program. For me, he really completes the picture of a great team of sports directors working for this team: A very reliable person with a wealth of experience and the motivation to bring something new to the sport.”
The 48-year-old Baffi joins Luca Guercilena, Torsten Schmidt, and Lars Michaelsen as the team’s Sports Directors, and Nygaard added: “Adriano is a master motivator and will be able to collaborate with the riders and his fellow Sports Directors to develop a seriously effective racing strategy.”
For his part, Baffi is relishing the prospect of working alongside a roster of riders that includes the Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara, saying: “I have worked
in cycling for so many years that I feel I can really bring a lot of my experiences to
help the team.
“When Bryan approached me saying that the team needed one more Sports Director, and wondered whether I would be interested, I was very pleased. It is an amazing group of people and a perfect way for me to find fresh motivations while, after all these years, still learning new things from my new colleagues.”
Team Manager Kim Andersen also highlighted the knowledge that Baffi will bring to the team as a result of his long career as a rider and sports director, commenting: “You just can’t buy the type of expertise Adriano can offer our team; he has worked long and hard in the sport, and will certainly add a great deal to our core knowledge.
“Adriano has the respect of the cyclists and all his colleagues, and we will be a much richer team because of his presence,” he concluded.
Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
Ah but taking pictures of things to defy the man (avoid a fine) is righteous. Taking pictures of people to grass on them to the cops (perhaps...
But getting paid for it is the very definition of professional....
Never had a Shimano QR fail on me. They just work. And the top end ones look good too....
If you're only looking at the guy in front of you then you're going to crash whatever brakes you have, you need to look beyond them to anticipate...
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...
Same. I also have gone through a bunch of their tyres, and only the extralight disappointed (torn sidewall) but the standards are fantastic....
thanks for the ideas....
Indeed - but it's no more inconsistent than our current road design - very often UK high streets are "for shopping" and also a busy through route....
If you ask the world's leading economic commentators how many people have been rescued from abject poverty by capitalism the average answer would...