Giuseppe Saronni may no longer be the offiicial manager of the Lampre-Merida team as the mamagement is now in the hands of South African Brent Copeland. Nonetheless, he still plays an important role in the Italian team and in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, he reveals that the team will be built around Rui Costa, Sacha Modolo and Diego Ulissi while he still has the hope that Filippo Pozzato will return to his former glory.

For Giuseppe Saronni who is now the commercial director at Lampre-Merida, the soul of the Lampre team is still the Galbusera family, owner of Lampre, even though the bulk of the budget now comes from Taiwanese bicycle brand Merida. In 2015, the team has retained its main riders.

"The first goal is to provide more support for Rui Costa. He, Ulissi and Modolo are our captains. Then we want to develop the young riders (the team has 11 riders who are less than 26 years old, ed.) because we have a very good group," Saronni tells Gazzetta dello Sport. "To do this, we must improve our team unity and the way we race since we did not always ride tactically well in 2014. We also need to adress a fe aspects about the way we prepare."

Saronni expects much from Costa after a season in which he won the Tour de Suisse, was second in Paris-Nice and GP Montreal, third in the Volta ao Algarve, Tour de Romandie and Il Lombardia, and fourth in the Tour of Beijining.

"He finished fourth in the UCI rankings. But we also have to admit that the Tour was well below our expectations, also because of health problems. We believe that we can make a step forward in quality," he says.

Saronni has a similar view on Modolo who finished 2014 with 8 victories (one in the Tour de San Luis, two in the Challenge Mallorica, one in the Volta ao Algarve, two in the Three Days of De Panne, one in the Tour de Suisse and finally one in the Tour of Beijing)

"His Tour was disastrous. Okay, it was his first year in the WorldTour and he had a difficult schedule but I hope to see another rider in 2015. At the moment, I think he has overcome the personal difficulties and is more serene," Saronni says.

The situation for Ulissi is delicate. On December 23, a committee under the Swiss Federation will hold a hearing about his doping case where he tested positive for salbutamol in the Giro d'Italia but the case is likely to go to CAS if the UCI wants a harsher punishment.

"In the team, from Guardascione (team doctor) to the everybody else, we are very optimistic. The problem is that the situation has been prolonged. Their morale is low and it is something that hurts us," Saronni says.

And what about Filippo Pozzato? 

"We have always relied on Pippo. At the end of the season, after many sacrifices, he was discreet. By 2015, these sacrifices are not enough, we need more. He knows it. He says he's doing a winter like never before," Saronni explains.

The team will count on returning riders Niccolo Bonifazio, Matteo Bono, Mattia Cattaneo, Davide Cimolai, Valerio Conti, Rui Costa, Kristijan Durasek, Roberto Ferrari, Sacha Modolo, Manuele Mori, Przemyslaw Niemiec, Nelson Oliveira, Jan Polanc, Filippo Pozzato, Mauro Richeze, José Serpa, Diego Ulissi, Rafael Valls and Xu Gang while Mario Costa, Eduardo Estrada, Chun Kai Feng, Tsgabu Grmay, Ilia Koshevoy, Luka Pibernik and Ruben Plaza will join the team.

Philippe Mauduit and Mario Scirea have joined the technical staff which is completed by Orlando Maini, Marco Marzano, Simone Pedrazzini, Daniele Righi and Bruno Vicino.