The FOOTON-SERVETTO-FUJI team keeps going on the road to the Vuelta a España and will take off on Thursday with their last season trip to Northern Europe. An expedition led by DS Daniele Nardello will be aiming high with several sprinters in the lineup for the 25th Dutch Food Valley Classic (UCI 2.HC), to be raced on a 210km flat course in Veenendaal. Swiss David Vitoria -a usual contender into the sprints of the Tour de Pologne- and Danish Martin Pedersen -the best GC finisher on Polish soil- will be joined in the team’s lineup by Enrique Mata, Vidal Celis, Johnnie Walker, David Gutiérrez Palacios, Markus Eibegger and Michele Merlo. Two days later, the full block, except for more unexperienced Palacios and Walker, will be repeating at the 15th Vattenfall Cyclassics, the only race of the UCI ProTour on German turf over 217 kilometers around the three traditional passes through the Waseberg hill. Apart from always interesting 20-year-old Fabio Felline, the most important incorporation to the group on the portuary city will be the long-awaited Manuel Cardoso, recovered from his terrific crash in the prologue of the Tour de France just six weeks later, and looking to build some good form for the upcoming Vuelta.

The two Northern classics will serve as warm-up for the 6th Eneco Tour (UCI ProTour), over eight stages in the Netherlands and Belgium between August 17th-24th. The young riders lining up at Veenendaal (Merlo, Palacios, Walker, Mata, Celis, Eibegger and Pedersen) will be also repeating here, with the only exception by Vitoria, leaving a free spot for Austrian Matthias Brändle, who has big hopes for a winning chance in the ending 16km individual time trial in Genk, preceeded by up to three stages in the Flemish and Walloon Ardennes. Last but not least, and at the same time, a second unit directed by Stefano Zanini will head into northern Italy to take part in the Trittico Lombardo, a series of three classics -the Tre Valli Varesine (1.HC) on Tuesday 17th; the Coppa Agostoni (1.1) on Wednesday 18th and the Coppa Bernocchi (1.1) on Thursday 19th- that formally open the run of one-day races in the country. Eros Capecchi, Ermanno Capelli, Giampaolo Cheula, Marco Corti, Noé Gianetti and Pedro Merino will make it into all three races, while three youngsters -Fabio Felline and trainees Dani Díaz and Ran Margaliot, the last one making his debut- will keep the other two seats hot: the Italian will ride into the two last events, the Argentinean will give a try to the two opening, harder ones and the Israeli will put on his two first bibs as pro riders during the Tre Valli Varesine and the Coppa Bernocchi.