Claudio Corti and Igor Astarloa had a great year in 2003. They won Fleche Wallone together, had a powerhouse Italian team and Igor won the World Title. Their team had red kits and Cannondale bikes. Nothing could be better. In 2004, Astarloa suffered the “Curse of the World Champion” and eventually tumbled down to the lowly South African Barloworld team for 2005.
Now in 2006, old friend and team manager Corti comes in to bring back the glory days of only two years ago. What happened since then? The ProTour changed the climate that smaller Italian teams used to enjoy. They could put together a team almost at the last minute and still get into some very big races, even the Tour. But this is 2006 and Barloworld will have to spend some time in the Continental circuit and hope for an upgrade sometime in the future.
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