Sylvain Calzati is to join French team Bretagne-Schuller for 2011 after a less-than-successful year at the new Sky Professional Cycling Team. While the team, sponsored by the north western French region, is currently at the third “Continental” level, the move should not be too much of a step down as it has applied for Professional Continental status next year.
Calzati’s year at Team Sky has not been a successful one, with illness disrupting the first half of the season; he missed the Tour de France, his big target for the year and has raced for the team just twice since then. The 31-year-old from Lyon will rejoin director sportif Emmanuel Hubert at the Breton team.
“[Calzati] is a very good rider, who I know very well since I directed him at Agritubel,” said Hubert. “He had done a very good job [at Agritubel] and I can assure you that if the team had continued he would have had a great season!
“We would have seen a great Calzati…
“He had a very difficult season at Sky,” Hubert continued, “He’d only raced a little then had an intestinal virus, which held him back significantly. He was then left to one side and didn’t race much.”
Calzati spent one of his best years under Hubert at Agritubel, although his greatest victory came in 2006; as an AG2R-Prevoyace rider, he won a stage of the Tour de France between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Lorient, in Brittany, the main sponsor of his new team.
“He certainly has the possibility of turning the page of cycling and engage very easily with another direction,” explained Hubert. “He explained to me that he is still hungry for cycling and for victories; his motivation is real!”
In addition to Calzati, the team has also signed 21-year-old Armindo Fonseca from small French team Côtes d’Armour-Marie Morin (sponsored by one of the Breton departments). Fonseca was one of the revelations of 2010, winning the Redon-Redon and GP de Fougères races on his way to taking the under-23 Coupe de France.