Road

As the 92nd Giro d’Italia heads into its second week, Lance Armstrong will find himself racing on terrain he knows very well, even though this is the first time he has raced the Italian grand tour. The Texan is still in training mode at the Giro, but knowing many of the road he’ll be racing on through Wednesday should help him in his quest to bid for a stage win later in the race — perhaps as early as next Thursday’s 60.6km time trial along the Cinque Terre coast. The connections with Armstrong are intense and frequent over the next five stages of the Giro.

The sun hasn’t set on Astana yet, but the glow of the team’s sponsors has certainly dimmed. Following a long-running row over the non-payment of the team’s wages, eight of nine riders on the Kazakhstan-sponsored squad started the Giro d’Italia’s seventh stage Friday wearing race jerseys and shorts Friday with the names of the team’s major sponsors virtually faded out. Astana manager Johan Bruyneel said the protest is the team’s way of demonstrating its frustration that Kazakh sponsors are not fulfilling its contract obligations to the team.

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Mechanics need the right tools to do their jobs. While of course their trucks are stocked with myriad good bike tools, sometimes they choose to use tools they made themselves. Or they appropriate a tool that was made for a different purpose. And the truck itself is a tool that is critical to doing their job.

Homemade truing stand

Lance Armstrong will target a stage win in the Giro d'Italia after falling off the pace in the overall standings, race leader Danilo Di Luca claimed on Thursday. "You mustn't forget that he stopped competing for three years and fractured his collarbone a month and a half before the race," the Italian said after completing the sixth stage. "I saw the footage of the Alpe di Siusi stage (on Wednesday) on television and he gave everything," Di Luca added. "He's doing his best, he's honoring the Giro. I think he'll focus on a stage victory."

Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni) soloed home an impressive victory Thursday to leave the chasing peloton in his rear-view mirror in the 2009 Giro d’Italia’s first successful breakaway.   Despite a frenetic chase by Quick Step and Katusha, the sprightly Italian held out after 198km in a five-man move in the 248km sixth stage over two rated climbs to the posh Austrian ski town of Mayrhofen. He won by 32 seconds clear of an impressive Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-Highroad).  

Belgian cycling federation president Laurent De Backer has hit out at the president of world cycling, Pat McQuaid, following the International Cycling Union's (UCI) decision to sanction Tom Boonen. Belgian star Boonen, who recently claimed a third victory in the prestigious Paris-Roubaix one-day classic, tested positive for cocaine in April — less than a year after he first tested positive for the drug, in May 2008.

Lance Armstrong just wants everyone to calm down. Some over-eager fans and media accustomed to watching Armstrong crush the climbs were dismayed Wednesday at the sight of him being dropped on the 24.9km summit finish to Alpe di Suisi, but on the day after, Armstrong was keen to put things in context.

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Team Type 1 announced Wednesday that it has hired Michael Creed, the domestic all-rounder who was fired by Rock Racing last month. “It’s nice to be in a position to help out a deserving American rider like Mike Creed,” Team Type 1 Director Sportif Vassili Davidenko said. “He will definitely be an asset for us in some of the biggest races in the United States this year.”

To start, it might be worth pointing out that these entries are being written via BlackBerry, so I apologize for their sometimes-rambling nature.

Under a strict interpretation of UCI rules, teams are only allowed to ride with “a single design for clothing (colours and layout) which may not be altered for the duration of the calendar year.” However, teams have made changes in the past, with the prior approval of the UCI. The UCI approved, for example, the Discovery team’s switch to a green-themed team kit for the 2007 Tour de France, a change designed to highlight an initiative undertaken by its title sponsor.

Roasted Gingered Salmon with Mango Salsa and more

Team Astana will wear a new kit in either Thursday or Friday's stage of the Giro d'Italia to signal upcoming changes at the team, sources told VeloNews. The team's special kit will include the names of all of the current sponsors, but the design itself will be changed. "There is no sponsor change, just changes to how the jersey looks to represent the significant changes that are ahead for the team," said a source who is in close contact with the team.

Investigators reviewing the records of two Freiburg University Clinic doctors who worked for cycling team T-Mobile allege German rider Andreas Klöden doped during the 2006 Tour de France. Kloeden, who finished second in the Tour three years ago and is currently under contract with the Astana team, is quoted in the 63-page report published by a three-man commission after a two-year investigation. Most of the allegations were outlined in a lengthy story, published in the German magazine Der Spiegel late last month.

Wednesday’s short but explosive climbing stage across the heart of the Dolomiti lived up to its dramatic backdrop at the Giro d’Italia.   The serpentine 24.9km climb up the snow-choked Alpi di Suisi summit at the end of the 125km fifth stage played executioner for some big names and culled the list of would-be winners down to a baker’s dozen.  

Race vehicles are critical for team success at a grand tour. Astana, for example, has in its stable 15 cars, two fully-rigged race-service trucks, one big bus, one medium bus, one small bus, one camionette, and one camper. Not all of them are used in a single race, but the garage the team uses is huge, in order to accommodate the entire fleet.

Cinelli’s XCr frame is an interesting experiment that mashes together classic steel bicycle frame craftsmanship with new world technology. From the classy side, the XCr features its choice of steel for a material, exquisite Italian welding and craftsmanship, not to mention, a classy design — including the seatstay-integrated seat post clamp. These features are juxtaposed by the incorporation of, arguably, the industry’s most advanced steel alloy, a progressive BB30 bottom bracket design and an integrated headset.

While the Tour de France is formulaic in its structure, the Giro is a mishmash of stages. Four days into the race and there have been three different leaders, challenging finishes and varied terrain. The Tour doesn’t reach the mountains until the end of the first week whereas here, in Italy, we rode into the sharp white-faced Dolomites today. And from here on, the race will not relent.

VeloNews Photo Director Don Karle, in Italy for the Giro d'Italia, decided Tuesday to go on a ride to get a feel for "what the riders were up against and what it was like for the spectators on a mountain-top finish." So Karle hooked up with top Italian racer Amy Rasic for some guidance, and the pair ended up doing what Karle called "a sweet ride, probably the coolest in my life so far."

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Putting to rest several months of speculation, North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) founder and director Don Walker said Tuesday that the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia will host the 2010 event. Scheduled for February 26-28, 2010, this marks the first foray to the east coast for the annual NAHBS event, now in its sixth year. Originating in Houston, Texas, then moving to San Jose, California and Portland, Oregon, NAHBS has grown from a show with 23 exhibitors and 200 attendees in 2005, to 150 exhibitors and 7200 attendees this year.

Budget-friendly Tommasso Mondial — butted aluminum and Ultegra for less than a grand

Embattled cycling star Tom Boonen could face a six-month ban from cycling after his second positive test for cocaine, according to the sport’s international governing body. Boonen, who recently claimed a third victory in the prestigious Paris-Roubaix one-day classic, tested positive for cocaine in April – less than a year after he tested positive for the drug for the first time, in May 2008.

Ivan Basso was eager to prove at the Giro del Trentino that he is back on form and must be considered the favorite for the Giro d’Italia. He did just that, and his efforts were assisted by having the right tool, namely his new, all-carbon Cannondale SuperSix. The SuperSix has taken a big jump in frame design since it was introduced in 2008, and its performance was a surprise to me. Being 6-foot-5, off-the-shelf bikes are rarely big enough for me to ride comfortably. Even if they are, the tallest size often tends to shimmy at high speeds or with the hands off the bars.

Tuesday’s first mountain stage provided an interesting antipasti of who’s going to be the main attraction in this centenary Giro d’Italia.   Danilo Di Luca (LPR), the 2007 Giro champion, sprinted to victory ahead of 2000 Giro winner Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) out of an elite group of about 40 riders to remind everyone that he’s still a force to reckon with.  

Rarely has a modern grand tour entered the mountains as early as does this year’s Giro. After a brief team time trial and two flattish stages disrupted by crashes (because of the maximum-size field of 198 riders racing on narrow, technical finishing circuits), the three-week race heads for the Dolomites on Tuesday.

Framebuilder Ugo De Rosa can look back on a glorious past, having built steel bicycles for a long line of champions, among them Eddy Merckx and Francesco Moser. But the De Rosa family continues to press forward, producing frames in a variety of materials to meet the demands of a rapidly changing market. The rise of carbon fiber “changed the Italian bicycle industry,” said Doriano De Rosa, one of Ugo’s sons.

Christian Vande Velde came into his own last season with a run of stunning successes: A strong showing at the Tour of California, the pink jersey at the Giro, a stellar fourth place in the Tour de France, and to cap the season, the Tour of Missouri overall win. This year Vande Velde scored a stage win at Paris-Nice, and looks set for another top season that he hopes is set back only slightly by his injuries in Monday's stage 3 crash at the Giro.

Team Quick Step’s management has urged Tom Boonen to undergo professional counseling after his second positive test for cocaine, but added that it would stand by him while he serves a suspension. The 28-year-old Boonen, Belgium's top cyclist, is facing up to what could be a premature end to his impressive career after his second positive test for cocaine, which came just two weeks after winning Paris-Roubaix for the third time. He first tested positive for the drug in May 2008.

Price: $15 to $30 Sizes: SM/Med and L/XL Colors: Dozens Web site: www.walzcaps.com Walz Caps is a producer of a wide range of stylish cycling caps. Their handmade in the USA caps are available with many color and pattern options within each of seven styles.

Price: $50 to $260 each Sizes: 8mm to 30mm Web site: www.bocabearings.com Boca Bearings has upgraded its ceramic bearing line with the new Peeka Boo 5. The new Peeka Boo 5 uses both ceramic races and ceramic balls, which Boca believes contributes to a greater reduction of friction and perhaps a better wear rate. The races are ABEC 5 and made of Zirconia, and the balls are grade 5 and made of Silicon Nitride. Boca believe that the new grade-5 balls are more spherical than previously available.

It was a bittersweet day for Garmin-Slipstream in Monday’s third stage at the Giro d’Italia.   Tyler Farrar bolted to second place in the stage, climbed into second place overall at eight seconds back of race leader Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) as well as second in the points jersey and earned some prime podium time with the best young rider’s jersey.   That was the good news.   Team captain Christian Vande Velde crashed out of the Giro in a spill with about 50km to go and suffered serious injuries that will complicate his preparations for the Tour de France.  

There’s never a dull moment at the Giro d’Italia.   Just when it seemed like things were bordering on routine, all hell broke loose and the final 50km of the 198km march from Grado to Valdobbiadene turned into a crash derby.   Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) was the primary victim, crashing out with a broken rib with about 50km to go before another spill with about 12km to go completely blocked the entire breadth of the road just as the peloton ramped up for the sprint.

The anti-doping tribunal of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) on Monday banned Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) from competing on Italian soil for two years, the Ansa news agency announced. Valverde was cited for his role in the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal, which first came to light in May of 2006. The Spaniard can therefore not compete in any race that takes place in Italian territory, ruling him out of the next Tour de France, the 16th stage of which passes through Italy's Val D'Aosta region on July 21.

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This year, Ted King is making his professional European racing debut with the upstart Cervélo TestTeam.

UC-Davis made its mark in Division 1 competition Sunday at collegiate nationals, defending its men's time trial title, scoring a surprise victory in the women's TTT, and, when the numbers were all crunched, coming away with the prestigious overall team omnium title. In Div. 2, the Furman University men defended their TTT title while Whitman College upset MIT for the women. Whitman took the Div. 2 overall team ominum title.

On the final day of the Joe Martin Stage Race, a technical criterium with over 100 feet of climbing per one-mile lap, OUCH-Maxxis played perfect defense to secure Rory Sutherland’s third consecutive victory. At the race’s finish, it was Team Type 1’s Chris Jones and Luis Amaran of Colavita-Sutter Home emerging from the remnants of a 10-rider break to finish first and second in the stage, respectively. Amaran’s teammate, Lucas Sebastian Haedo, won the field sprint, putting him on the podium for the third time in the three days.

In a battle of the Olympic gold medalists, Kristin Armstrong (Cervélo TestTeam) outsprinted Marianne Vos (DSB Bank-Nederland Bloeit) to win the 86th Tour de Berne on Sunday. The American scored her first World Cup win by nipping her Dutch rival to win the 135.8km World Cup race in 3:30:19. Trixi Worrack (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung) crossed third at 47 seconds back. Armstrong won gold last year in the Olympic time trial, while Vos — a three-time world champ on the road, in cyclocross and in the points race — collected gold in the Beijing points race.

Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Caisse d'Epargne) won the Four Days of Dunkirk following Sunday's sixth and final stage. Andre Greipel (Columbia-Highroad) took the 172.3km finale in a sprint finish ahead of Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) and Frenchman Sebastien Chavanel (Française des Jeux). Da Costa, who assumed the overall lead on Saturday, became the first Portuguese to win the event. The 22-year-old turned pro just two years ago with the modest Benfica team before switching to Caisse d'Epargne.

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) has won 164 races during his long career, but his relegation of British sprint ace Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) to second on Sunday was one of his sweetest victories. Only the 2005 Milan-San Remo and his first career Giro stage win in 2003 — versus Mario Cipollini — mean more to the 35-year-old, who was back in the Giro d’Italia winner’s circle Sunday for the first time since serving his controversial racing ban last year.

Quick Step’s management said Sunday that it would not beg the Tour de France to include Tom Boonen in this year's race. Boonen, a 28-year-old one-day specialist who was crowned world champion in 2005, is facing up to what could be a premature end to his impressive career after testing positive a second time for cocaine. He tested positive for cocaine two weeks ago, after winning his third Paris-Roubaix. It was barely a year after he first tested positive for the drug, in May 2008.

Milram’s Focus

In first kilometer of the 20-kilometer team time trial we found what we needed to win: speed and fluidity. Riding together prior to today’s opening team time trial we knew what we were capable of doing as a team but we also knew that if the race wasn’t ridden prudently the team would come undone within meters. A corner taken poorly, acceleration at the wrong moment, or heroic selfishness would break the rhythm. The machine we were creating needed to have the pace of a metronome.

“It was tense from the word go,” said Mike Tamayo, director of OUCH-Maxxis, the team leading the Joe Martin Stage Race heading into Saturday’s 92-mile circuit race. But despite a breakaway containing many of the top general classification riders staying away late into the race, at the finish it was again Colavita-Sutter Home’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo placing first in a large field sprint ahead of Johnathan Cantwell (Fly V-Successful Living) and Nic Sanderson (Rock Racing).

The University of Vermont won for a second day in a row at the collegiate national road championships on Saturday. UVM's Colin Jaskiewicz took the Division 1 men's criterium win at the race in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado, the day after teammates Jamey Driscoll and Will Dugan went 1-2 in the road race.

There were no pink jerseys for Lance Armstrong, but the seven-time Tour de France champion was content with Astana’s steady third-place performance in Saturday’s team time trial to open the 2009 Giro d’Itali. The 37-year-old Giro rookie led the squad across the line as Astana stopped the clock in 22 minutes, 3 seconds on the 20.5km course on Lido di Venezia. That was good enough for third behind Columbia-Highroad and Garmin-Slipstream.

The Belgian-based Quick Step team has suspended Tom Boonen after learning that the three-time Paris-Roubaix winner has tested positive for cocaine for the second time in a year. Boonen, who recently claimed his third victory in the prestigious “hell of the North,” is alleged to have tested positive two weeks after that race, on April 24 or 25. News of the test positive led prosecutors to order a raid on Boonen's home, confirmation of which was given by top public prosecutor Jan Poels to the Sudpresse daily newspaper group and the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper.

Mark Cavendish was cool as a cat as he watched team after team fall short of besting Columbia-Highroad on the flat 20.5km course in Lido di Venezia. The Cannonball had plenty of time to consider he was about to become the first British rider to wear the maglia rosa. Columbia started first among 22 teams and he had to wait nearly two hours to secure the victory until Giro rookie Lance Armstrong led final-team Astana across the line 13 seconds short.

The University of Vermont took the top two spots at the division I men’s Collegiate National championship road race on Friday, while Carla Swart (Lees-McRae College) repeated in the D1 women’s road race title. In Division 2, Princeton's Nick Frey solo'd for the men’s title, while Emma Bast (Mount Holyoke College) took the sprint in the women's race.

With Mark Cavendish primed for the sprints, and Michael Rogers and Thomas Lövkvist riding with no pressure for the GC, Columbia-Highroad has its bases covered on the eve of the Giro d’Italia. The squad brings a balanced team with a heavy emphasis on stage victories and breakaways with no pressure but quiet ambition to perform well in the GC.

A deluge of early morning rain dampened Fayetteville’s Ozark Mountain roads on the Friday morning prior to the 110-mile second stage of the Joe Martin Stage Race. When the skies finally parted, it was OUCH-Maxxis’s Rory Sutherland outsprinting a large field to take second place behind Colavita-Sutter Home-Cooking Light’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo. Sutherland secured the overall lead in the process via a 10-second time bonus.

Saxo Bank strongman Fabian “Spartacus” Cancellara wants an even faster bike on which to trounce into submission those mere mortals who do their best simply to survive a race against the clock. Cancellara may now have the ideal weapon in the Specialized S-Works TTR, a sleek rig you will see raced for the first time in Saturday’s stage 1 team time trial at the Giro d’Italia. Most distinctive is the TTR’s stem/nose cone, which extends straight forward from the top of the top tube, covers the head tube and front brake and is integrated with the aero bar.

BMC Jeff Louder and Cervelo TestTeam's Kristin Armstrong lead the National Racing Calendar standings following last weekend's SRAM Tour of the Gila. Louder won the Redlands Bicycle Classic and has spent most of his time in Europe since then.

The USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships will be held in Fort Collins, Colorado, this weekend, May 7-10. For the second year in a row, Colorado State University, in partnership with the Fort Collins Cycling Festival, will host student athletes from up to 60 colleges and universities.

In a crowded boat full of tourists, nine of us, dressed in our bright yellow team kits sat together as a calm wind blew our hair. The sun was low in the sky and the Adriatic a murky turquoise. School kids touring Venice with their class pushed, laughed and sang songs to beats tapped out on the boat rails while we spoke about the race course, our effort in training, the fluidity needed to win the team time trial, and the coming three weeks of racing.

The most recent in a series of customized Trek bikes for Lance Armstrong will debut this weekend at the Giro d’Italia. Part of an “artist bike” series, production of which was coordinated by Jamie O’Shea of Supertouch (an art and culture blog), the latest bikes are especially eye-catching.

Weeks of hype and anticipation culminate Saturday as the centennial celebration of cycling’s most colorful and emotional race finally clicks into gear. The Giro d’Italia is celebrating its 100th birthday with all the raw emotion, intense passion and hard-edged racing that makes the Italian grand tour one of the season’s highlights. Stepping center-stage with aplomb is Lance Armstrong, back in his first grand tour since winning the 2005 Tour de France.

Mavic’s TraComp carbon-spoke system, in which the spoke works in both traction and compression, has had a somewhat rocky beginning. A recall this year of all R-Sys front wheels was a black eye for Mavic, a company that has always prided itself on the reliability of its wheels.

In 2007, when Team Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes raced to a fifth place finish at the Joe Martin Stage Race’s uphill, 2 1/2-mile time trial, he said time trial bikes were the norm. “This year I show up and everyone’s on road bikes with light wheels,” Jacques-Maynes said. “I know my time trial bike is light and I can get it up a hill just fine. There’s a half mile of flat road before the climb starts, and being in your time trial position for that section can be the one-second between winning and losing.”

Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov has said he wants to launch a comeback later this year after competing a two-year suspension for a doping offense. "I do not want to end my career on such a sour note. It's time to announce my return to action," the 35-year-old told L'Equipe sports daily. Vinokourov was kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France after being found guilty of blood doping and he was also hit with a two-year suspension from competition. That suspension will come to an end on July 23 leaving him free to find a team.

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In an eleventh-hour deal, Universal Sports secured rights to the Giro d’Italia and will be airing live, start-to-finish coverage of each stage of the 2009 race. Fans in America will be able to watch complete daily coverage live online at universalsports.com and a taped, same-day show on cable, if Universal’s station is available in their region. After months of negotiations seemed to fall apart between RCS Sport — the Giro’s parent company — and Universal Sports executive producer David Michaels, a deal was completed Thursday morning.

VeloNews reporter Fred Dreier’s three-week stretch of European race coverage was marred by the theft of his shoulder bag, including a camera and computer. However, he managed to score a steal of his own while in Houffalize, Belgium, for the third round of the UCI mountain bike World Cup. He made it home this week with very interesting shots of new SRAM mountain bike parts.

Cross-country riders aren’t the only mountain bike racers with a weight obsession. The World Cup gravity crew has been working on trimming grams, too, and that’s a big issue when you have a bike like Yeti’s 303DH, which excels in just about every aspect … except for that hefty number of grams that might be trimmed.

A spokesman for Lance Armstrong says he and his team will start the Giro d'Italia this weekend wearing Astana uniforms, despite ongoing financial difficulties at the team. Armstrong's spokesman Mark Higgins told VeloNews one thing is certain: "It will be Astana colors for the Giro when it starts on Saturday."

The UCI on Thursday confirmed that Katusha rider Christian Pfannberger has been provisionally suspended after failing an out-of-competition test for Recombinant Erythropoietin (EPO). The Austrian rider tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test on March 19 and analysis was conducted at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria, the UCI reported.

Of all the major players, Carlos Sastre has been the quietest so far through the 2009 season. While riders such as Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck have notched impressive victories, the defending Tour de France champion has been in an early-season hibernation. Sastre insists that he’s fully awoken from his spring slumber and vows to come to life in the three-week Giro d’Italia, starting Saturday in Venice.

Born in the shadow of the Brickyard, Zipp Speed Weaponry has a history like no other company in cycling. Headquartered within sight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Zipp design, production and testing facility is deeply rooted in both motor sports and bicycle racing. Folded into the carbon laminate of every part that leaves the factory is knowledge gained from years of trial, error and wind tunnel testing.

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After four years of racing in February, the 2010 Amgen Tour of California will be held May 16-23, during the same time slot as the Giro d’Italia. America’s biggest stage race will move from its winter dates into the spring, taking dates on the UCI calendar occupied this year by the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya ProTour event.

Rising star Catharine Pendrel of team Luna Chix was a slim 14 seconds short of winning the Houffalize World Cup on Sunday. The featherweight Canadian had a breakout season two years ago and continues in her bid to become the top North American female mountain bike racer. Although Team Luna Chix is taking a more selective approach to the 2009 World Cup series, she’ll still have plenty of opportunity to thrive.

Caisse d’Epargne’s Alejandro Valverde announced on Wednesday that he intends to file a lawsuit against Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri. "Mr Torri acts, in a repeatedly obstinate manner, with total disregard for the Spanish legal authorities, refusing to submit to the decision of the Madrid judge that forbids CONI from using criminal evidence against athletes," Valverde said in a statement.

French rider Jimmy Engoulvent gave his small Besson-Sojasol squad another big win in the second stage at the Four Days of Dunkirk on Wednesday. Engoulvent out-kicked the pack in the 178.9km stage to claim victory. André Greipel – the big German sprinter who is back to racing action for the first time since breaking his leg at the Tour Down Under back in January – finished second in the stage to take the leader’s jersey. Greipel moves ahead of second-place Sebastian Chavanel (FDJeux) with Stephen De Jongh (Quick Step).

The Russian-sponsored Katusha team has suspended Austrian rider Christian Pfannberger following a non-negative doping control, the team reported Wednesday. According to Katusha officials, Pfannberger gave a non-negative result in a surprise, out-of-competition control at his home on March 19. There was no indication of what type of product might be involved.

Defending Giro d’Italia champion Alberto Contador will be watching this year’s corsa rosa on TV. That’s just fine for Contador, who has bet everything on winning the Tour de France. “I’m going to be able to enjoy it from home, even though good memories from last year will make me feel a little nostalgic. This year my objective is the Tour. There’ll be a time for going back to Italy,” Contador explained in a press note. “It’ll be a lovely Giro, with lots of very good riders fighting for victory. It’ll be quite interesting for the spectator.”

Garmin-Slipstream’s Giro d’Italia starts upside down, with the team’s most important stage coming on day 1 and everything else after that being a bonus in the three-week Italian grand tour starting Saturday. With that in mind, the American team lines up with a loaded squad that should bring more firepower in the team’s quest to defend its title in the team time trial in the opening stage in Venice.

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