Eight Americans, representing four pro cycling teams, will be in the peloton at the Giro d'Italia when it sets off Saturday with the opening team time trial in Turin.
With competition for attention from the Amgen Tour of California that runs May 15-22, many teams are holding back their US native cyclists for West Coast race.
Garmin-Cervelo is trying to have it both ways, with its strongest riders split between both races. Tyler
Farrar, above, for instance will be competing for sprint wins at the Giro,
while Christian Vande Velde and Dave Zabriskie
are headed to California.
201 Tyler Farrar – born in Wenatchee, Washington, makes home in Gent, Belgium
203 Thomas Peterson (fourth in recent Tour of Turkey) North Bend, WA; owns a bike shop in Renton, WA
208 Peter Stetina – Boulder, CO
At it's website, Garmin sport director Lionel Marie said the Giro squad is looking to win stages in the first half of the three-week race, then putting a cyclist in the top 10 overall.
“The Giro is very good for Tyler because there is always a curve or corner in the final kilometer. It's not as wide-open as the Tour sprints, so Tyler is very good at getting through those technical finishes to be ready to win the stage. … He is fit and motivated.”
Some of that motivation has to come from the presence of Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) in the peloton.
Meanwhile, Tom Peterson, fresh off a fourth place finish at the Tour of Turkey, will be on hand to help Christophe Le-Mevel in his battle for the podium.
Peter Stetina will be making his grand tour debut with hopes
of helping out when he can, learning as much as he can and making it to
Milano.
31 Chris Barton – Ojai, California
32 Chad Beyer – Tucson, Arizona
36 Chris Butler – Greenville, South Carolina
BMC Racing Team is a US-based team that's putting most of its eggs in the Tour of California basket. Assistant Director Fabio Baldato said the squad won't have a “leader” who is going for the maglia rosa at the Giro, but the 9-man group will be looking for stage wins.
“Our three young Americans – Chris Barton, Chad Beyer and Chris Butler
– have a good opportunity for them to show themselves and learn in a
big race.”
74 Craig Lewis – Greenville, SC
The team's sports director Valerio Piva says they're looking for stage wins with Cavendish.
“In the first twelve stages or so, there are four or five that look
certain to end in bunch sprints and afterwards we’ve got Marco [Pinotti]
and Kanstantsin [Sivtsov] for the overall classification, with Craig
Lewis providing a lot of support for them in the mountains.”
Team RadioShack
217 Bjorn Selander – Hudson, WI
Here's another team that will be focused on the Tour of California. They're touting Portuguese cyclist Tiago Machado as the leader with a chance for a podium finish and Robbie McEwen (Australia) and Robbie Hunter (South Africa) as possibilities for flat stage victories.
Bjorn Selander, who turned pro in 2009, is there to gain experience in a Grand Tour.
Team Sky
In addition to the 8 cyclists from the US, another North American is at the 2011 Giro. Michael Barry, from Toronto, Canada, is riding for Team Sky. You might remember him as a teammate of Lance Armstrong on US Postal Service. He's fresh off competing at the Tour de Romandie.
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