Pamplona-based Russian rider to compete with Movistar Team for the next two seasons, starts its second era into the ranks of Eusebio Unzué's squad, where he got his best pieces of success After the signings by Giovanni Visconti (Farnese), José Herrada and Javi Moreno (Caja Rural), Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel), and Nairo Quintana (Café de Colombia), Vladimir Karpets has become the sixth rider joining Movistar Team for the 2012 season. Living in Navarra for the last decade, the 31-year-old Russian will make his 12th pro season into the telephone squad, and goes back to the ranks of Eusebio Unzué three years after leaving a 6-year stint from 2003 to 2008.
Karpets, a talented rider as well for the mountains as for the time trials, has seven victories in his palmarès, all of them notched up in the Spanish structure and most notably two World Tour stageraces like the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour de Suisse -both in 2007-. Silver medalist in the 2010 Russian ITT championships and 12th in the 2009 Vuelta a España with Katusha, Karpets returns this way to the place where he earned the most success throughout his career.
Marzio Bruseghin extends one year with Blues
In turn, one of the most remarkable riders from Movistar Team in the final rush of the season, Marzio Bruseghin, will stay into the elite division at the age of 37 and has renewed for the 2012 season with the telephone squad, where he will fulfil the seventh of already 15 seasons as pro rider. Autor of a notable Vuelta a España, where he finished 2nd in the stage to Bilbao and claimed 14th overall, the Italian hopes to keep bringing constance and experience into a group combining youth and wisdom.