Jun 28, 2006
Tour Stat: 24 Italians in the Tour
(Damiano Cunego will scope out the Tour course just to get a taste)
The Italian contingent looks fairly strong in a race that traditionally is not a high priority. Twenty four Italians ranging from the oldest Giovanni Lombardi at 37 years old to Ricardo Ricco at 23 years old. Paolo Savoldelli and Ivan Basso are contenders for overall victory and several Italians such as Danilo DiLuca, Paolo Bettini and Stefano Garzelli will be hunting for stage wins. Sprinter Daniele Bennati will try to contest the sprints and possibly go for the Green Jersey against the like of Boonen, McEwen and Hushovd. Here is the list of Italians.
Discovery Channel
Paolo Savoldelli
CSC
Ivan Basso
Giovanni Lombardi
T Mobile
Giuseppe Guerini e Eddy Mazzoleni
Lampre
Damiano Cunego, Alessandro Ballan, Daniele Bennati, Marzio Bruseghin, Salvatore Commesso, Daniele Righi, Paolo Tiralongo
Quick Step
Filippo Pozzato e Matteo Tossato
Credit Agricole
Pietro Caucchioli
Cofidis
Cristian Moreni
Saunier Duval Prodir
Riccardo Ricco e Gilberto Simoni
Liquigas
Danilo Di Luca, Stefano Garzelli, Luca Paolini, Manuel Quinziato
Milram
Mirko Celestino, Fabio Sacchi, Marco Velo
You wrote “Paolo Bettini and Stefano Garzelli will be hunting for stage wins”
I keep reading about Bettini participating in this tour, and being in Strasbourg, but he doesn’t show up on any start lists that I’ve seen, and you don’t show him in your QuickStep lineup:
Yes/No: Is Bettini in the tour?