Three Rainbows: Bastianelli, Cooke, and Guderzo sign with MCipollini-Giordana

That means that the one big name that we don’t know about yet is Grace Verbeke. It looks like the plan to build a team around Rossella Callovi based on her old teammates at Vecchia Fontana hasn’t yet come to anything.

Cicloweb spoke to Francesco Pennisi of the Fiamme Azzurre (the Italian military jobs for athletes programme, see passim) and he said “For the Fiamme Azzurre this partnership with MCipollini-Giordana is an important step because for the first time all our athletes will ride on the road for the same team, and this will allow us to track them better and to be able to to study their programmes together with the DSs without having to organise meetings [between lots of parties]. Our primary objective is Olympic qualification, and for that it will be very important to draw up a programme of training and racing that can get the best out of all the girls. From the start this team will be one of the best in the world, but our objectives are spread over many years and the intention is to grow and improve year on year. To be able to ride regularly at a high level, against the strongest and beside a champion like Nicole Cooke will be a great stimulus for Guderzo, Baccaille, Bastianelli, Tagliaferro and even for Frisoni, even if she will continue to be more focussed on the track. This is a project of great importance and we hope that it can last a long time”