This Week in Pro Cycling – May 5, 2008

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

It’s been a big week of racing, but perhaps the biggest news came out of a board room, just over the weekend. RCS, the organizers of the Giro d’Italia, announced that the Astana team has been invited to this year’s race after all. The organizers’ decision marks a reversal of their earlier position that the team had been too mired in doping scandals for the past two years to warrant an invitation. Whether it was driven by an acceptance of the argument that the team has been totally reorganized since last season or simple commercial pressures, we may never know, but what is clear is that the presence of Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden will undoubtedly change the bets put on the outcome of the race by odds-makers. [More]

Giro organizers did say that Klöden’s performance this past week at Switzerland’s Tour de Romandie helped make their decision easier. Klöden grabbed the overall lead in the Stage 3 time trial and kept it all the way to the finish in Lausanne on Sunday.

Here in the U.S, some of the survivors of the Tour de Georgia went to New Mexico to take on the Tour of the Gila. It wasn’t the big American teams that dominated, however, as the Mexico-based Tecos-Trek squad largely controlled the race from start to finish, with Colombian climber Gregorio Ladino Vega taking the overall title after Sunday’s Queen stage, the “Gila Monster.” The women’s race, too, was largely controlled by ValueAct Capital’s Leah Goldstein from start to finish.

On the mountain bike side, the UCI World Cup came to Madrid, Spain, for Round 3 of the series. As many had expected, Julien Absalon (Orbea) continued to dominate the series, taking his third win in as many outings. On a surprising note, Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja (Multivan Merida), who has been slowly recovering from an illness for the past year, scored a big win against a stellar field, despite coming to Madrid only for “training.”

With the Giro beginning on Saturday, we have a big month planned here at VeloNews.com, with previews, analysis and then Live up-to-the-minute coverage of each and every stage, all the way to the June 1 finish in Milan, so be sure to check in with VeloNews.com throughout the coming week and the weeks that follow.

Here’s hoping the weather is smiling upon you, wherever you live, and that you get a chance to put in a few miles yourself.

Sincerely,

Charles Pelkey

Senior Editor, VeloNews.com

CPelkey@insideinc.com

FILED UNDER: Uncategorized