Mario Cipollini has confirmed that he has joined the new team ISD. The 41 year old former world champion will work as a consultant for the Italian team of Luca Scinto and Angelo Citracca, as reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We have created a lot of similar ideas. You will see me some times in the team car or training with the riders,” Cipollini said.

“It was an experience,” he said of working with Michael Ball’s Team Rock Racing. “Every great athlete wants to feel it, even after retiring. I understand the desire of Lance Armstrong to return to the top. I took the post at Rock Racing immediately, but in America I could not give the contributions that I would have liked to.”

Scinto and Citracca were to have extra funding for Cipollini and the team from Danieli, but the company backed out of its offer to sponsor the Professional Continental team, according to the newspaper. It was set to provide one million in budget for the team.

“The team will have 20 riders. The leader will be [Giovanni] Visconti, but also look out for [Dmitry] Grabovskiy and [Andriy] Grivko.”