Pantani picked as Italy team leader
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Your support makes all the difference.Marco Pantani, a Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner in 1998, will lead Italy's five-man cycling team in the road race at the Sydney Olympics in September. His team-mates are Michele Bartoli, Francesco Casagrande, Danilo Di Luca and Paolo Bettini.
Marco Pantani, a Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner in 1998, will lead Italy's five-man cycling team in the road race at the Sydney Olympics in September. His team-mates are Michele Bartoli, Francesco Casagrande, Danilo Di Luca and Paolo Bettini.
Pantani, nicknamed "The Pirate" by Italian cycling fans, returned to action in this year's Giro and Tour after going into semi-retirement following a failed blood test.
Germany's Erik Zabel bids for a unique treble in the San Sebastian classic today. The Deutsche Telekom rider wants to be first to win three World Cup races in a season - a target never achieved in the 12-year history of the series.
Zabel's credentials are solid. He has recorded 16 victories this season, boosting his career record towards the century mark, and has also donned the Tour de France green points jersey a record five times.
The 30-year-old sprint specialist landed the Milan-San Remo in March and the Amstel Gold race in April and another victory for Zabel, a commanding 192 points ahead of second-placed Latvian Romans Valstens in the World Cup standings, would also make his overall success in the 10-race competition virtually certain.
However, the German will not be the only rider on the Basque race start line with three wins in mind - the Vini Caldirola team leader, Fran- cesco Casagrande of Italy, has won the race for the last two years.
No rider has triumphed three years in succession since the inaugural race in 1981, and only the Spaniard Marino Lajarreta has three victories to his name - in 1981, 1982 and 1987.
Lance Armstrong also knows what it is like to finish first along the quayside in San Sebastian. The US Postal rider won in 1995, but he is less confident of a repeat as he is still recovering from the effort of winning the Tour de France for the second time. He was a modest 69th in the four-day Tour of Burgos which finished on Thursday.
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