Lance Armstrong — at 7 Tour de France championships — will be joined by a host of cycling champions at the 2009 Giro d'Italia.
Carlos Sastre, last year's Tour de France winner, has signed on for the Giro, and Denis Menchov, winner of the Vuelta a Espana in 2005 and 2007 also announced his intention to compete.
Five Giro d'Italia …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/01/09/strong-roster-already-committed-to-giro-ditalia/
The Team Garmin cyclists must be licking their collective chops on Saturday after learning that the 2009 Giro d'Italia opens with a team time trial in Venice.
An opening team time trial in the Giro last year put the US-based team — then known as Team Slipstream-Chipotle — in the leading position with Illinois-raised Christian Vande Velde in the pink jersey.
The Giro rolls across Italy (with brief visits to Austria, Switzerland and France) for 2,105 miles from May 9 -31. It finishes in Rome with a time trial, the first time the bike race has skipped Milan as the finish since 1989 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/12/13/2009-giro-ditalia-route-revealed/
First-time Giro d'Italia competitor Lance Armstrong taped a message for the 2009 course presentation in Venice on Saturday in which he reviewed some of the challenges of next year's bike race.
The press has been saying that Armstrong is racing the Giro d'Italia in May to win, then the Tour de France in July to support his Astana teammate Alberto Contador. But on Saturday he said:
“I know there's a lot of talk about the pink jersey. I'm excited to race hard, but Ivan Basso is my favorite. ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/12/13/armstrong-basso-is-my-favorite-at-2009-giro-ditalia/
The 100-year anniversary of the Giro d'Italia rolls out of Venice on May 9, 2009, and some big names in cycling already have announced their intentions to compete.
Leading the list is Lance Armstrong, who is coming out of retirement for 2009 and says he's in it to win. He's never before competed at the Giro.
Others include:
— Carlos Sastre of Spain, winner of the 2008 Tour de France;
— Cadel Evans of Australia, back to back runner up at the Tour …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/12/12/all-star-cast-shaping-up-for-giro-ditalia/
After protecting a slim margin in the pink jersey for the past six stages, Alberto Contador won the Giro d'Italia on Sunday with a comfortable lead of one minute and 57 seconds.
Early on it was reported that perhaps the last-minute addition of Astana to the Giro's peloton had put the team off their game; Contador was on a beach vacation with his girlfriend when he got the phone call the week before the race.
In spite of their slow start, Contador and his team finished strong in the last week in the mountains. The Spaniard gained the overall lead in the mountains on Stage 15 last Sunday, and held onto to it throughout the week, for the past couple of stages with only a four-second margin …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/06/01/contador-wins-giro-ditalia-with-comfortable-margin/
Challengers attacked Giro d'Italia leader Alberto Contador through the mountains on Saturday. But at the end of the day the Spanish rider for Astana retained his 4-second lead in the three-week race that ends Sunday.
Italian rival Riccardo Riccò and Contador matched each other over the Passo Gavia, Passo del Mortirolo and the Aprica. Neither one gave up a second to the other, although Ricco sprinted in to finish just ahead of Contador.
The lead group attacked each other on the second climb of the day, the Mortirolo, with its average 7.9% gradient. But amazing climber Emanuele Sella attacked at the beginning of the smaller third climb, the Aprica, no one could match him …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/31/contador-still-leads-giro-sella-wins-3rd-mountain-stage/
Alberto Contador held onto the slimmest of leads — by just 4 seconds — as the Giro d'Italia routed the peloton over three major climbs on Friday, including a mountaintop finish.
The winner of last year's Tour de France faded as challengers attacked on the final climb, and at one point he had lost his overall lead “on the road.” But Contador had one last push left for Monte Pora and it gave him the margin he needed to survive.
As the peloton heads over Mortirolo and the legendary Gavia for Saturday's penultimate stage, Ricardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) sits just 4 seconds behind and defending champion Danilo Di Luca sits in third place, 21 seconds behind …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/30/contador-retains-pink-jersey-in-giro-just-barely/
Cycling veteran Jens Voigt, left, beat Paolo Bettini (and the rest of the peloton) at his own game on Thursday at the Giro d'Italia on a course that will be used for the 2009 World Championships.
Current world champion Bettini attacked early in the race and drove about a dozen riders in a breakaway on the 91-mile Stage 18 from Mendrisio to Varese.
But it was Team CSC's Voigt, 36, who made a solo attack from the breakaway with about 24 miles left. His move tore apart the group, as different bunches in 3's and 4's tried to catch up. Among those unsuccessful chasers, Bettini. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/29/solo-win-for-voigt-at-giro-contador-still-leads/
The sudden controversy concerning UK's Mark Cavendish, left, at the Giro d'Italia doesn't involve tainted urine samples or blood doping allegations.
The issue is whether or not Cavendish let High Road teammate and lead-out man Andre Greipel win the Stage 17 sprint to the finish line in Locarno on Wednesday.
Cavendish has two stage wins of his won at the Giro, and observers noted that he sat on Greipel's wheel through the sprint and never accelerated to win the stage. It would have been his third stage win at the Giro; no Briton has ever won three stages of a major cycling race, laments the Guardian newspaper …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/29/high-roads-cavendish-did-he-or-didnt-he/
Italy's Enrico Pellizotti won the ever-climbing 7.9-mile time trial on Monday, but couldn't dislodge Astana's Alberto Contador from the overall lead.
The Spanish cyclist, who just attained the leader's pink jersey after Sunday's stage, finished Stage 16 in 4th place but widened the margin over his nearest rival — Riccardo Riccò — to 41 seconds.
After Tuesday's rest stage, the peloton swings into Switzerland for part of a 90-mile 17th stage from Sondrio to Locarno that has only one climb. Cyclists with a design on a championship will have to look ahead to the mountain stages on Friday or Saturday or Sunday's final stage — a time trial around Milan…
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/27/contador-survives-in-pink-jersey-pellizotti-wins-time-trial/
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