Team presentation Milram cycling team 2008

Added: thursday 10 January 2008 at 22:29:00

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Today the German team Team Milram presented its team for 2008.

New for the team are especially a new organisation, a new base for the team in Dortmund, a younger team, new goals and an even more important anti-doping programme.

Gerry van Gerwen, the new general manager of the team said: I am happy to present a German team that, with it's high number of young riders, offers a high potential for the future. Team MILRAM's new organisation stands for the new way in cycling.

Since the Italian company Ciclosport was sold to VeloCity GmbH Team Milram has moved to the base of its new owner in Dortmund. To allow a closer contact and a better co-operation with the riders Van Gerwen wants the riders to come to Dortmund and its vicinity to live and train there.

With the change of its owner the team has become more German - 12 of its 27 riders are German - and its German sponsor Milram, milk and milk products brand, definitely likes that.
The goals of the team
The most important goals of the team are to be present in the German races, but of course also in the Tour de France which is also quite popular in Germany.
In addition to the German races, Milram will of course participate in the ProTour races (their ProTour licence pretty much obliges them to do so by the way).
The last year for Erik Zabel
One of the German riders in the team, the sprinter Erik Zabel, used the team presentation to repeat his wish to end his professional career at the end of this season.

However that is not yet 100% sure because he told the French press agency AFP: "I think this will be my last season on a bike. If however I realise that I still like it a lot when I'm on the bike or if Alessandro Petacchi asks me to continue riding on his side, I might think about it again.".
The Team Milram during the team presentation at the Tour de France 2007 in London - Photo: Thomas Vergouwen
The anti-doping programme
Just like Rabobank the team thought it was necessary to dedicate a big part of its presentation to its new anti-doping programme.
The team thus explained that the existing anti-doping programme has been enhanced and is now based on five principles: official rules, additional voluntary agreements, increased prevention, increased transparency and clear consequences.

Team Milram follows the rules from UCI, WADA, IOC and the anti-doping regulations of the seven home countries of its riders.

During the 2008 season, the Milram riders altogether will be tested 600 times including the tests which are necessary for the biological passport. In addition to this, the Danis expert Dr. Rasmus Damsgaard, will work with the team to analyse 8 blood samples of every rider, independent of the team.

Just like Rabobank, Team Milram will use the ADAMS system to allow the riders to communicate their whereabouts.
The team sponsors
In addition to Milram the other team sponsors are:
> Colnago for the bikes
> Shimano for bike parts and the shoes
> Škoda for the team cars
> SMS Santini for the cycle wear
> Garmin for the GPS solutions for bikes and cars
> Specialized for the helmets
> Le Coq Sportif for leisure wear
> Lausitzer Fruchtkonserven for marmalades, tinned fruits and fruit juices
> and less important sponsors like Panaracer, Prologo for the saddles, FSA for the handle bar, Sapo, Elite for the bidons, Tecar, SportsBalm and Multipower
The riders
The Team Milram riders in 2008 are:
- Vittorio Algeri
- Igor Astarloa
- Luca Barla
- Volodymyr Diudia
- Markus Eichler
- Artur Gajek
- Sergio Ghisalberti
- Ralf Grabsch
- Andrey Grivko
- Dennis Haueisen
- Matej Jurco
- Christian Knees
- Christian Kux
- Brett Lancaster
- Martin Müller
- Alberto Ongarato
- Alessandro Petacchi
- Enrico Poitschke
- Elia Rigotto
- Dominik Roels
- Fabio Sabatini
- Björn Schröder
- Sebastian Schwager
- Niki Terpstra
- Martin Velits
- Marco Velo
- Peter Velits
- Erik Zabel
Team Milram 2008 - Photo: Team MILRAM
by Thomas Vergouwen
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