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The team will be stronger than ever in 2007 after the signing of Italian star Filippo Pozzato and the rapid development of several talented young riders. Pozzato won Milano-San Remo in 2006 and is targeting all the early ProTour races in 2007. He will be backed by a strong team with Sweden’s Magnus Backstedt and fellow Italians Luca Paolini and Manuel Quinziato.
Team Liquigas is an Italian professional road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. The star is the Italian Danilo di Luca, who won the 2005 UCI ProTour. The current title sponsor is Liquigas. In 2005 the team was co-title sponsored by Liquigas and Bianchi and was named Liquigas-Bianchi.
The team was founded under the name Liquigas in 1999, and was long in the second division team, slowly making a name of itself. From 2005 the team was combined with Team Bianchi for the Pro Tour.
For 2007 Cannondale replaces Bianchi as the bicycle sponsor. This marks Cannondale's return to the ProTour after discontinuing sponsorship of the Lampre-Caffita team at the end of the 2005 season.
Status
2005 was a very exciting year for the team. Danilo di Luca won Vuelta al País Vasco, and the one day classics Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. Also there has been stage wins in Giro d'Italia (2 x Danilo di Luca), the Vuelta al País Vasco (Danilo di Luca), the Volta a Catalunya (Enrico Gasparotto) and the Tour de Suisse (Michael Albasini). In 2006, the team won the Team Classification in the Eneco Tour of Benelux.
