Italian UCI ProTour teams Liquigas and Lampre-N.G.C. have confirmedtheir places on the 2009 Tour Down Under start list.

“Liquigas finished fourth overall in the Team Classification at the 2008 TourDown Under, so we expect them to be tough competition in 2009,” said MikeTurtur, Tour Down Under Race Director.

In 2008, Liquigas’ Francesco Chicchi finished first on Stage 7 of the Tirreno-Adriatico and first on Stage 1a, Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali.

“Chicchi’s strengths are in the sprints, making him one to watch for SA Lotteries Sprint jersey points,” said Mike Turtur.

Lampre-N.G.C.’s Matteo Bono will bring invaluable Grand Tour experience tothe Tour Down Under, after competing in the 2008 Tour de France.

“Bono turned professional in 2006 and his first pro win was stage 6 of the 2007 Tirreno-Adriatico,” said Mike Turtur.

Both Italian teams have a strong supporter base in Australia with the SouthAustralian Italian community adopting these teams as their own.

“We all know how passionate Italians are, and we have come to expect goodperformances by both the Lampre-N.G.C. and Liquigas teams,” said MikeTurtur.

The Lampre-N.G.C. team for the Tour Down Under includes: Matteo Bono(ITA), Emanuele Bindi (ITA), Andrew Grendene (ITA), Mauro Santambrogio(ITA), Vitaliy Buts (UKR), Volodymyr Zagorodniy (UKR) and David Loosli(SUI). Bruno Vicino (ITA) will be the Team Manager.

The Italian Liquigas Team will be led by Team Manager, Dario Mariuzzo (ITA) withthe team line up including: Macieji Bodnar (POL), Cladio Corioni (ITA), GianniDa Ros (ITA), Jacopo Gaurnieri (ITA), Aliaksandr Kuchynski (BLR),Francesco Chicchi (ITA) and Frederick Willems (BEL).