Without attempting to sell the rest of the Milram-squad short, the teams results mainly depend on Zabel and Petacchi. How that can turn into a problem was revealed last season when Stanga’s riders won, besides Lampre-Fondital and Bouygues Telecom, the least ProTour-races. Only three victories, coming from Petacchi (1) and Zabel (2). Because of a heavy injury half the team was disabled, getting good old Zabel even more eager to win the flowers than usual.


To deal with this problem the team management started a search for additional quality within its budget and found Astarloa, the fast La...