2008-05-09 10:58:09 -
MILAN, Italy (AP) - The recent domination of the Giro d'Italia by cyclists from the host nation could be about to change, with an especially strong field to begin the 2008 edition Saturday.
Non-Italians at the starting line in Palermo with hopes of arriving first in Milan after the 21-stage race include last year's Tour
de France winner Alberto Contador and his two teammates on the Astana team: the Tour's 2006 runner up Andreas Kloden and American Levi Leipheimer.
There will also be the usual strong field of Italians looking to make it 12 home victories in a row, including three who have already arrived in Milan with the victor's pink jersey. Among those is defending champion Danilo Di Luca, Paolo Savoldelli who won in 2002 and 2005 and Gilberto Simoni who was first in 2001 and 2003.
«I feel good and I feel like I did at the start last year, let's hope the result is the same,» said Di Luca. «If Contador is in the same shape that he was last year in the Tour than he is certainly the favorite. But besides Contador there are many others.
Contador's condition might not be optimal as his Astana team got an invite from the Giro organizers only last week.
«Unfortunately I didn't have the time to prepare this race sufficiently,» said Contador. «I'm not in the best of condition so I will have to evaluate in the first days how things are going. It will be difficult at the beginning, but the objective is to arrive at the last week of the Giro in the right condition to be able to confront some very difficult stages.
Contador will try to be the first non-Italian to win the race since Pavel Tonkov of Russia in 1996. In recent years many top stage-race cyclists such as seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong have chosen to skip the Giro and concentrate on the French race. Italy's Marco Pantani won both in 1998, a feat that has not been repeated since.
Contador and his teammates were left to concentrate on the Giro after Astana was excluded from the Tour De France because of doping violations in the past two years. Astana sporting director Johan Bruyneel called the decision «extremely unfair, illogical, ridiculous and arrogant.
Contador joined the Kazakhstan-backed Astana team in October after his previous team, Discovery Channel, disbanded.
«The Giro this year seems suited to my characteristics, for certain aspects it's more difficult that the Tour de France, but Astana will have many cards to play,» said Contador.
The Giro has four time trials this year, though the contenders said the winner will be decided in the six mountain stages, peaking on the approach to Milan.
«The Giro is won in the last week,» said Di Luca.
A panel of judges and experts acquitted Di Luca last month of doping charges that could have led to a two-year ban and the loss of last year's Giro d'Italia victory.
Several young Italians will be looking to make their mark including Riccardo Ricco and Vincenzo Nibali. Russia's Denis Menchov, who won the 2007 Spanish Vuelta, and Colombia's Mauricio Soler, who was the best in the mountains at last year's Tour De France, will also be at the starting line.
The Giro, which has two rest days, begins with a 23.6-kilometer (14.7-mile) team time trial in Palermo. Other time trials include one in the mountains and one on the last day when the race arrives in Milan on June 1. There are six mountain stages.
Conspicuous among the absent Italians will be Damiano Cunego, who won the race in 2004, but preferred to concentrate his preparations this year on the Tour de France.
Also missing will be Italian sprint specialist Alessandro Petacchi. The Team Milram captain had already said a week ago that he would miss the race because of a lingering case of bronchitis, then came a one-year doping ban. Petacchi was stripped of his five stage wins at last year's Giro for excessive use of an asthma drug that he was allowed to take in smaller dosages.
Ivan Basso, who won the Giro in 2006, is also out as he serves the last months of his two-year ban as part of the Operation Puerto doping scandal.
To combat doping, the UCI has been taking blood and urine samples from 854 professional cyclists since the start of the year in a testing program to issue each rider with a so-called «biological passport.» All riders in the Giro have a biological passport.
Among the sprinters, the top prospects for stage victories are Italian Daniele Bennati and Australian Robbie McEwen.
Time trial specialist David Millar said the main objective for him and his American Slipstream Chipotle team is the Palermo team time trial. He will be aided by two Americans, fellow sprint specialist David Zabriskie and Christian VandeVelde.
«It's a hard race that just gets harder and harder as it goes on,» said Millar. «I'm a little apprehensive, it's a scary prospect, especially that last week. We'll see. I'm scared, but excited.
