Our first gran fondo of 2012 will be the Gf Laigueglia

Stivali !
12th February 2012
That's the date for the Gf Laigueglia held in Liguria
It's a great event with many riders using as preparation for the coming season, be they pros, semi-pros or amateurs. Here is the route:
http://www.bikemap.net/route/1359044
110km & 1800m of climbing
Bring your leg & arm warmers as weather can be changeable this time of year
Get in touch if you want to join us:
info@italianclarion.com
tel: +44 161 408 1965
mob: +39 348 086 1958
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Want to see the Giro in 2012 (5th to 27th May)?

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Want to see the Giro in 2012 (5th to 27th May)?

Once again in 2012 we are privileged to have the Giro pass by our doorstep. This time on Stage 13 & 14 on it's way from Savona up to the mountaintop finish at Cervinia.

Want to see end of Paris-Nice & Milan SanRemo in 2012...

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Here follows some details of a proposed training camp. 10th to 18th March 2012
The 11th March sees the end of Pari-Nice and the 17th March Milan-SanRemo.

This time of year you can get away with shorts & knee warmers, even up high at 1000m.
Best to pack leg warmers & tights as well just in case.
Below are details of 'location', 'accommodation' and 'itinerary'.

Baldichieri d'Asti

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Bit of a nip in the air setting off today, first time for tights & overshoes.
Still finding fantastic new routes here, right on our doorstep
http://www.bikemap.net/route/1321598
Also stumbled upon a great CX circuit through the hazelnut tree groves

offroad terre dei santi

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mountainbiking today on all saints day. What ever happened to the all saints?
Well if they liked mountainbiking they'd have liked today's ride.
Beautiful colours with the sun shining and the leaves on the vines & trees turning a lovely yellow / orange / red / brown - fantastic.
We went out today to help a damsel in distress, a mountainbiker with a broken valve on her inner tube, no spare & no shops open on all saints day. They were quite big in Italy. We rode to her abode in Chieri, offroad, to meet her & then to take her out, down the tracks & trails local to her. But.....

Isolabella, bella giornata

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Loads of riders out today making the most of the good weather before winter sets in.
http://www.bikemap.net/route/1316215

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bella vista social club ....

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Well what a view today, beautiful snow capped Alps all the way from MonViso round to Monte Rosa, 180 degrees of mountains, you've got to see it to believe it.
Nice ride too

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How much Italian is in Cavendish:

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interview by http://www.gazzetta.it/ with Cav prior to GranPiemonte & after signing with sky:

Staying with Italian Clarion.......

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Well We've had a few visitors prior to our 'free accommodation to Clarion CC members' offer.
But since we've had none.
What more can I say?
I'm thinking of selling places by raffle. Perhaps for a club / group of riders to come & stay / participate in a training camp.
Does anyone know if this works? Is it legal?
Say a club buys a ticket for our 'Paris - Nice finale & Milan - San Remo' trip of 9 days & 8 nights.
A ticket includes for 12 riders to stay.
Ticket price is say £60
To break even we'd need to sell 160 tickets
So a club would have a 1 in 160 chance of getting a free trip (excluding flights) for 12 members.
Good eh?

Speroni !

Pippo

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We went for a nice little loop yesterday on the mtb's, with 9km to go this little fella 'Pippo' wouldn't get off my tail.

Giro ttt stage 1 Torino

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Bella Vita Social Club – Italian Clarion

Wake up and smell the coffee, no the real coffee, the best in the world. In Italy superlatives prevail, - everything. Be it wines, the landscape or food in general (too many to mention). The people are great too, truly social.

We can concur with this, currently enjoying our 4^th year here. Give up your 9 to 5 for a few days or more & come & experience it with us. Whether riding, walking or just chilling at the café or bar enjoying aperitivo, you won’t regret it.

Pininfarina & quick loop

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Had a great time at Pininfarina today speaking with the Director who deals with Ferrari. His babies are the 348 Italia and the new FF. Incredible cars and there in their foyer to oggle over, along with another of my favourites, the Maserati GranCabrio, an incredibly beautiful car.
The man also told me last year one of his clients was Eric Clapton who wanted a 438 but with his own body style on it, fantastic.
You know, some people have great jobs, and his is almost as good as mine !-)

Nice ride after, see link above.

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Gorengo

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Just back from another fantastic ride, you can't beat it.
Great punchy climbs that suit Philippe Gilbert. Well he's won the Giro del Piemonte for the last 2 years and he seems to like the Cauberg.
Todays ride also included 2 stretches of strada bianchi on this route:

1 - between Cerreto & Marmorito (uphill but rideable) 1.8km

2 - after 300m past Gonengo until reaching the Strada Provinciale near Berzano (mainly uphill with one tricky/steep section) 1.4km

sorry, this is either camera shake from the gravel or sweat on the lens - or both

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Aramengo ride

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Another Sunday, a different route took us to Aramengo,
however, the route back on Saturday was too good not to be repeated.
We'd heard about the landslide between Campolungo and Albugnano, but thought we'd risk it (it'd be ok for bikes wouldn't it?).

Motovelodromo di Corso Casale

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Last Thursday I had my first session on the recently re-opened track. It was great to finally get on the track bike again. It's been in its box for nearly four years since arriving here.

The track is open from 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8.30pm on Thursdays.

To ride it costs just €105 for the year, even though the surface is not as smooth as the boards at Manchester, it's better than I remember at Newcastle. So great value. The photos below are from a visit I made when we first arrived in Turin. Will have to take the camera to next Thursday's session.

Blossom ride

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We had a great ride on Saturday, choosing some particularly quiet roads with fantastic scenery.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=304047&id=575257629&l=d53cb5a41f

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a sunday in hell

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Look at these beautiful bikes & the Gios super record




Humble superstars on their lovely steel framed bikes


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Motovelodromo

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How cool is this - The Fausto Coppi Motovelodromo is open again.
Last nights opening finished at 8.30pm & I unfortunately missed it, but I hope to be there on Monday.
Photos here on facebook & video here

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Today's Route: Capriglio, Gallereto, Montafia. Savi, Serra

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a bit of a scorcher today, and it's getting warmer, 22 today 29 on Sunday
Nice riding weather, the tan is coming on again

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Molini di Triora

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A great weekend of riding was had in this fantastic area of Liguria.

On Friday we investigated Goina on the MTB's. Our 29er's were well suited to cross country terrain chosen. A steady climb on narrow tarmac road took us upto Triora, clinging to the edge of the valley with great view of the snowy mountains (monte saccarello and monte di pietravecchia) to the north and the valle argentina south, a nice gravel track led us to Goina where we had a fantastic view down the Argentina valley. That was a great descent.

On Saturday we went out on the road bikes down the Argentina valley from Molini into a strong breeze up the valley from the sea. The snaking road led us through Badalucco (where they make the fantastic ROI olive oil), if you are riding this way take the old road which bears to the right just after Agaggio. It rejoins the strada provinciale at Desteglio. You pass under the autostrada high above with its 15 arches replicating the roman bridge of 15 arches which you pass on your left a short while after.Passing through Taggia, we then turned right along the coast to San Remo, via a trip up the Poggio. It's an easy climb (but not after 300km of racing I'm sure). The descent is fantastic. Having to keep your concentration away from the fantastic views and on the tight twisting road with high stone walls to one side & open drops to the other.

 

The coast road is great, the scenery really helps to keep the tempo high. But at Vallecrosia we turned inland up valle nervia, through

  Dolceacqua, and up to Pigna, a thermal village. At this point the climbing really started with Pigna at 250m & the colla di longan at 1130m a 15% climb.

This early in the year it was a steady ride in a low gear, just taking in the views as more and more valleys appeared on the horizon as we rose out of ours. A tough climb but good surface and really quiet, except for a couple of cars practising for the San Remo vintage rally the following weekend.

The descent from the top was fast, but taken with caution. This side is mainly in the shade during the winter months a so is badly eroded in places due to frost action.
Our hosts for the weekend were Mark & Julie of Molini Freeride. Their B & B was a great base for our riding and recommended, we'll be back.

Speroni !

Flanders

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I've watched this clip a few times now.
Must be the best Tour of Flanders for some years.
Real hard core.

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Dolce Terre Novi

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over 1500 riders are down to ride the gran fondo 'Dolce Terre Novi' in Novi Ligure this Sunday, the weather will be good too...

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Berzano di San Pietro & San Paolo Solbrito

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Another fantastic day for a ride upto the highspot of today  - Albugnano, via Pino d'Asti. Both classic Piemontese hilltop villages with stunning views of the Alps, a 180 degree panorama. A nice twisting descent follows en route to Berzano di San Pietro. After a short climb to Moncucco Torinese it was virtually all downhill after. Through Buttigliera, San Paolo Solbrito and back to Montafia where Loz put in a series of sprint efforts to the surprise of the Cafe ride locals.

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vous aimez le fixed?

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nice video

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http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20110323-2012-MTB-Course-Unveiled-0

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20110323-2012-MTB-Course-Unveiled-0

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Such a fantastic looking facility, is it big enough to satisfy demand?

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Casasco - today's ride

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Beautiful day for a bike ride. Riding into Monferrato's rolling hills and shallow valleys.
I turned left to Viale on the way back on one of those flat valley roads and saw a rider just ahead & thought I'd catch up & say 'ciao'. However, this guy was obviously a strong bugger. A 10 second gap opened to 15. I closed it back to 10 but no more after 10 minutes of trying between 40 & 45 kph.
He wasn't going my way home, I turned right up to Valmezzana. That was a slow climb after the chase. My excuse, he had deep aero wheels ;-)
Maybe I'll catch him next time.

Speroni !

First Ride Review: Specialized Epic Comp Carbon 29 | Cyclingnews.com

First Ride Review: Specialized Epic Comp Carbon 29 | Cyclingnews.com

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specialized now know how to make a 29er

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interesting article on bbc sport - cycling

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This sounds positive, lets see what happens; bbc sport - cycling

Jonathan Vaughters' 10-point plan to reinvigorate cycling:

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe.

2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.

4. More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.

5. More team-time trials more often.

6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the "craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer".

7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.

8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.

9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.

10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.

Speroni !

Today's ride - Monale

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Only had time for a quick ride today to Monale. A bit blowy but nice weather, still in tights & light gloves & overshoes.
All the locals we passed must have still been aware of Milan San Remo taking place only yesterday as they saluted us with more vigour than usual.
By the way, congratulations to Matt Goss, but a special word also to Michele Scarponi who did a great ride too (fantastic effort on Cipressa). Gilbert & Nibali were my favourites, they did really well but were unlucky in this long race where anything can happen.
If you missed it, some highlights are here in two parts:
Part 1
Part 2

Speroni !

MSR 2011

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Yes, I am excited. Can't wait.
The weather has picked up too.
Bella !
Here's Claudio winning in 1991 care of steephill.tv

Speroni !

Italia 150 years old

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Yesterday was Saint Patrick's day, twiddly-diddly-dee ! It was also a significant day in Italy's history. Yesterday was also the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification. Torino was where it all started in 1861. The first parliamentary building of today's was Palazzo Carignano, one of my favourite buildings in Torino, fantastic baroque architecture & the inside is spectacular too.

 
Here are some other images from our stroll through the streets yesterday:

The queue outside the gelateria....

3 stripes, tri-colore

the streets were full

 amore...

tricolori flags everywhere

 the most prestigious cioccolataria in Torino...

nice chair..

 via cavour

 Piemonte, the home of Martini

 nice to see all the shops celebrating

 Coffee anyone?

Speroni !

MIlan San Remo 2011

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With so many past winners on the start line, and so many favourites, it should be a great race......
Here's the start list:

• Rabobank Cycling Team
• 1 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa)
• 2 Lars Boom (Ned)
• 3 Michael Matthews (Aus)
• 4 Rick Flens (Ned)
• 5 Sebastiaan Langeveld (Ned)
• 6 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned)
• 7 Bram Tankink (Ned)
• 8 Maarten Wijnants (Bel)
• Acqua & Sapone
• 11 Danilo Napolitano (Ita)
• 12 Paolo Ciavatta (Ukn)
• 13 Massimo Codol (Ita)
• 14 Alessandro Donati (Ita)
• 15 Ruggero Marzoli (Ita)
• 16 Claudio Corioni (Ita)
• 17 Simone Masciarelli (Ita)
• 18 Fabio Taborre (Ita)
• AG2R La Mondiale
• 21 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita)
• 22 Martin Elmiger (Swi)
• 23 Sébastien Hinault (Fra)
• 24 Biel Kadri (Fra)
• 25 Sébastien Minard (Fra)
• 26 Lloyd Mondory (Fra)
• 27 Matteo Montaguti (Ita)
• 28 Anthony Ravard (Fra)
• Androni Giocattoli
• 31 Angel Vicioso Arcos (Spa)
• 32 Roberto Ferrari (Ita)
• 33 Luca Barla (Ita)
• 34 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita)
• 35 Giairo Ermetti (Ita)
• 36 Alessandro Bertolini (Ita)
• 37 Luca Solari (Ita)
• 38 Antonio Santoro (Ukn)
• BMC Racing Team
• 41 Alessandro Ballan (Ita)
• 42 Marcus Burghardt (Ger)
• 43 George Hincapie (USA)
• 44 Danilo Wyss (Swi)
• 45 Karsten Kroon (Ned)
• 46 Ivan Santaromita (ITA)
• 47 Michael Schär (Swi)
• 48 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel)
• Colnago – CSF Inox
• 51 Sacha Modolo (Ukn)
• 52 Manuel Belletti (Ita)
• 53 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita)
• 54 Stefano Pirazzi (Ukn)
• 55 Simone Stortoni (Ita)
• 56 Marco Frapporti (Ita)
• 57 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita)
• 58 Gianluca Brambilla (Ukn)
• Cofidis,Le Credit en Ligne
• 61 Leonardo Duque (Col)
• 62 Kevin Ista (Bel)
• 63 KEUKELEIRE Jens (Bel)
• 64 Arnaud Labbe (Fra)
• 65 Aleksejs Saramotins (Lat)
• 66 Nico Sijmens (Bel)
• 67 Tristan Valentin (Fra)
• 68 Romain Zingle (Bel)
• Euskaltel – Euskadi
• 71 Daniel Sesma (Spa)
• 72 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa)
• 73 Francisco Javier Aramendia Llorente (Spa)
• 74 Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa)
• 75 Ivan Murillo Velasco (Spa)
• 76 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa)
• 77 Amets Txurruka (Spa)
• 78 Juan Jose Oroz Ugalde (Spa)
• Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli
• 81 Giovanni Visconti (Ita)
• 82 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn)
• 83 Francesco Failli (Ita)
• 84 Oscar Gatto (Ita)
• 85 Leonardo Giordani (Ita)
• 86 Elia Favilli (Ita)
• 87 Davide Ricci Bitti (Ita)
• 88 Patrick Sinkewitz (Ger)
• FDJ
• 91 William Bonnet (Fra)
• 92 Mickael Delage (Fra)
• 93 Anthony Geslin (Fra)
• 94 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra)
• 95 Yoann Offredo (Fra)
• 96 Dominique Rollin (Can)
• 97 Wesley Sulzberger (Aus)
• 98 Benoït Vaugrenard (Fra)
• Geox-TMC
• 101 Matthias Brändle (Aut)
• 102 Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa)
• 103 David De La Fuente Rasilla (Spa)
• 104 Xavier Florencio Cabre (Spa)
• 105 Marko Kump (Slo)
• 106 RATTO Daniele (Ita)
• 107 Tomas Alberio (Ukn)
• 108 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita)
• HTC-Highroad
• 111 Mark Cavendish (GBr)
• 112 Michael Albasini (Swi)
• 113 Lars Ytting Bak (Den)
• 114 Bernhard Eisel (Aut)
• 115 Matthew Harley Goss (Aus)
• 116 Mark Renshaw (Aus)
• 117 Bert Grabsch (Ger)
• 118 Peter Velits (Svk)
• Katusha Team
• 121 Filippo Pozzato (Ita)
• 122 Leif Hoste (Bel)
• 123 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus)
• 124 Vladimir Goussev (Rus)
• 125 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus)
• 126 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Blr)
• 127 Luca Paolini (Ita)
• 128 Vladimir Isiachev (Rus)
• Lampre – ISD
• 131 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita)
• 132 Michele Scarponi (Ita)
• 133 Grega Bole (Slo)
• 134 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita)
• 135 Danilo Hondo (Ger)
• 136 Matteo Bono (Ita)
• 137 Manuele Mori (Ita)
• 138 Diego Ulissi (Ukn)
• Liquigas-Cannondale
• 141 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita)
• 142 Peter Sagan (Svk)
• 143 Valerio Agnoli (Ita)
• 144 Tiziano Dall\’antonia (Ita)
• 145 Damiano Caruso (Ita)
• 146 Mauro Finetto (Ita)
• 147 Kristijan Koren (Slo)
• 148 Alan Marangoni (Ita)
• Movistar Team
• 151 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita)
• 152 Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu)
• 153 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr)
• 154 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa)
• 155 Branislau Samoilau (Blr)
• 156 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa)
• 157 Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Spa)
• 158 Andrei Amador Bipkazacova (Crc)
• Omega Pharma-Lotto
• 161 Philippe Gilbert (Bel)
• 162 André Greipel (Ger)
• 163 Adam Hansen (Aus)
• 164 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel)
• 165 Sebastian Lang (Ger)
• 166 Vicente Reynes Mimo (Spa)
• 167 Marcel Sieberg (Ger)
• 168 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin)
• Pro Team Astana
• 171 Allan Davis (Aus)
• 172 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita)
• 173 Assan Bazayev (Kaz)
• 174 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita)
• 175 Andriy Grivko (Ukr)
• 176 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz)
• 177 Simon Clarke (Aus)
• 178 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)
• Quickstep Cycling Team
• 181 Tom Boonen (Bel)
• 182 Marco Bandiera (Ita)
• 183 Davide Malacarne (Ita)
• 184 Francesco Reda (Ita)
• 185 Niki Terpstra (Ned)
• 186 Jérôme Pineau (Fra)
• 187 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra)
• 188 Kevin Van Impe (Bel)
• Saxo Bank Sungard
• 191 Baden Cooke (Aus)
• 192 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe)
• 193 Juan José Haedo (Arg)
• 194 Kasper Klostergaard Larsen (Den)
• 195 Michael Christiansen Morkov (Den)
• 196 Nick Nuyens (Bel)
• 197 David Tanner (Aus)
• 198 Matteo Tosatto (Ita)
• Sky Procycling
• 201 Bradley Wiggins (GBr)
• 202 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor)
• 203 Geraint Thomas (GBr)
• 204 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa)
• 205 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor)
• 206 Michael Rogers (Aus)
• 207 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe)
• 208 Ian Stannard (GBr)
• Team Garmin-Cervelo
• 211 Thor Hushovd (Nor)
• 212 Tyler Farrar (USA)
• 213 Heinrich Haussler (Ger)
• 214 Roger Hammond (GBr)
• 215 Andreas Klier (Ger)
• 216 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu)
• 217 Johan Van Summeren (Bel)
• 218 Matthew Wilson (Aus)
• Team Leopard-Trek
• 221 Fabian Cancellara (Swi)
• 222 Daniele Bennati (Ita)
• 223 Wouter Weylandt (Bel)
• 224 Linus Gerdemann (Ger)
• 225 Fabian Wegmann (Ger)
• 226 Anders Lund Den (Den)
• 227 Stuart O\’Grady (Aus)
• 228 Robert Wagner (Ger)
• Team Radioshack
• 231 Robbie McEwen (Aus)
• 232 Robert Hunter (RSA)
• 233 Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso (Por)
• 234 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel)
• 235 Grégory Rast (Swi)
• 236 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)
• 237 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)
• 238 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
• Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
• 241 Borut Bozic (Slo)
• 242 Thomas De Gendt (Bel)
• 243 Björn Leukemans (Bel)
• 244 Marco Marcato (Ita)
• 245 Jens Mouris (Ned)
• 246 Alberto Ongarato (Ita)
• 247 Romain Feillu (Fra)
• 248 Mirko Selvaggi (Ita)
• 
  

Speroni !