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Team Milram is spearheaded by sprinters Alessandro Petacchi of Italy and Erik Zabel of Germany. Milram is sponsored by a German dairy but based in Italy and perfectly represents how international sponsors and teams can successfully work together thanks to the UCI ProTour structure.
Team Milram is a professional cycling team, and was started in 2006. They took over the UCI Pro Tour licence of Domina Vacanze. The team’s main sponsor is Milram, a brand of the Bremen-based company Nordmilch. Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi are the team’s top cyclists. In 2006, the squad is completed by 28 further riders, mainly from Germany and Italy. Team Milram is the third team in the UCI ProTour with a German main sponsor.
The racing stable’s management is led by the Italian Gianluigi Stanga, who has been a team manager in professional cycling since 1983. Stanga is supported by the Italians Vittorio Algeri, Antonio Bevilacqua and Oscar Pellicioli, as well as by the former professional cyclist from Germany, Jan Schaffrath, as sport directors. Gerry van Gerwen from the Netherlands is Team MILRAM’s commercial manager.
Since its start into the cycling season 2006, Team Milram has been able to achieve considerable results. Up to the middle of August 2006, the Team Milram riders were able to attain nearly 60 placings, amongs them 19 victories, 19 second and 30 third ranks. The most important successes are Christian Knees’ victory of the German classic Rund um Köln, Alessandro Petacchi winning all the stages as well as the overall classification of the Niedersachsenrundfahrt, the three stage victories in the Bayern-Rundfahrt by Ralf Grabsch, Björn Schröder and Erik Zabel, the second rank in the Vattenfall Cyclassics and Erik Zabel winning the best sprinter’s red jersey in the Deutschland Tour.
In May 2006 the team established a scouting system to grant a professional furtherance of new talents, which is considered as innovative to professional cycling. Jan Schaffrath is in charge of the scouting. The recruitment of young talented riders for the ProTour team is based on two principles. On the one hand, promising talents are promoted and developed in the Milram Continental Team. On the other hand, Schaffrath is also taking a look at U23 riders of other teams. The scouting system makes sure that contact and trust between the new talents and the professional team are established and strengthened early.
