Who's the Man? With Four Team Captains, Liquigas Leadership Still Up in the Air

The Liquigas team has a nice problem for 2010. With Ivan Basso, Roman Kreuziger, Vincenzo Nibali and Franco Pellizotti all legitimate team leaders, the lime green and blue Pro Tour team will have some tough decisions to make throughout the year regarding who leads the team in some of the year's most important races.

For the hilly classics like La Fleche Wallonne and Leige-Bastogne-Leige, Nibali and Basso seem best suited, but Pellizotti too could do damage in the one day races, giving Liquigas directors a choice of three top riders to lead the team. In a one day classic, having a couple of team leaders is good in that if one should crash, the other one or two can pick up the slack. In these instances, Liquigas will be in strong position to podium in most of the hilly classics.

In the grand tours though it is usually better to have one team leader that the team rallies behind. At the Giro this should be less of a problem as Nibali will be in California at the Amgen Tour of California, while Kreuziger will be building for the Tour de France. Basso and Pellizotti will co-captain for the Italian tour, with one of them hoping to emerge the GC winner at the end of the three week race.

At the Tour de France in July though, things will really get interesting. All four of the Liquigas captains will be on the start line for the 2010 Tour, and as of now it is not clear who will lead. Pellizotti wants and deserves a chance to try for the overall in France, after having gone top three at the Giro, and Ivan Basso is also hoping for a top performance in his return to the race that kicked him out a few years back for involvement in Operacion Puerto. Nibali and Kreuziger too would like to have an opportunity to lead, but what chance do they have with the veterans Basso and Pellizotti clamoring for their shot at glory? Slim to none.

For Nibali and Kreuziger, 2010 may be their final year as members of the Liquigas team unless Liquigas management steps up and designates them as team leaders in the season's biggest races. The two are coming into their own and it is unlikely that either will be comfortable taking a back seat in 2011. In fact, Nibali has been linked to Sky in recent months. While he would still take a back seat to Wiggins at the Tour de France, he would likely have the Giro all to himself as a member of Sky.

For 2010, it is clear that Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali will command much of the leadership responsibility for the Liquigas team. Barring sickness or injury, Nibali and Kreuziger will have to look for their spots to win races wherever they come up. They'll have to play the role of good teammate and support their veteran teammates while looking for chances for themselves at smaller races like the Dauphine Libere or Tour of California. By the end of 2010 though, expect to see a Liquigas team that is missing at least one of the above four mentioned riders.