In a little bit less than one week (next Saturday) the 91st edition of the Giro d'Italia will start on Sicily (click here for the full track of the Giro 2008). Several teams have thus already announced their selection of riders for this Tour of Italy. In this article you'll find the first lists of riders.

Furthermore, you probably remember that Astana was not on the list of teams which had been selected to participate in the Giro when the selection was announced early February. Yesterday it was only rumours but this morning the Giro's director confirmed that Astana finally is invited to participate in the Giro d'Italia 2008!!

UPDATE 6 May 2008: yesterday night the Giro organiser has published the list of riders and this article has thus been updated for the missing teams and the numbers has been added.
UPDATE 9 May 2008: after a fall during a training David Arroyo unfortunately won't be able to participate for Caisse d'Epargne and with an intestinal virus Benjamin Noval cannot start for Astana; finally CSF Group Navigare sent Ariel Maximiliano Richeze back home after a positive doping check.

The selected riders

• AG2R La Mondiale
  12 Philip Deignan
  19 Yuriy Krivtsov
  13 René Mandri
  14 Laurent Mangel
  15 Rinaldo Nocentini
  16 Nicolas Rousseau
  17 Blaise Sonnery
  18 Alexandre Usov
  11 Tadej Valjavec
• Astana
  
  Big surprise since the Giro organisor first refused to invited this team due to a lack of motivation (the team initially completely focussed on the Tour de France) ... the new request for participation has apparently received more interest from the Giro organisor: "with another approach than before and with a list of top riders" as Angelo Zomegnan, Giro's director, said on Saturday.
  
  Saturday night he said there was a 50% chance for Astana to participate in the Giro, on Sunday morning Zomegnan told the La Gazetta dello Sport newspaper (part of the same group as the Giro organisor): "Yes, I invited Contador" and he thus confirmed Astana's participation. The two reasons for this changed opinion on the Luxembourg team with Kazakh sponsors are -according to La Gazetta dello Sport- that Astana will send a team with all leaders to the Giro since the team cannot participate in the Tour de France and that the team now has a thorough anti doping programme and a new organisational structure.
  
  Astana's three leaders who will participate in the Giro are:
  
  22 Alberto Contador
  28 Andreas Klöden
  21 Levi Leipheimer
  
  The list of other riders is as follows:
  29 Assan Bazayev
  24 Antonio Colom
  23 Vladimir Gusev
  25 Maxim Iglinsky
  27 Andrei Mizourov
  26 Benjamin Noval Steve Morabito - with an intestinal virus Benjamin Noval will unfortunately be unable to start
• Barloworld
  31 Francesco Bellotti
  32 Patrick Calcagni
  33 Felix Cardenas
  34 Stephen Cummings
  35 Enrico Gasparotto
  36 Christian Pfannberger
  37 Carlo Scognamiglio
  38 Mauricio Soler
  39 Geraint Thomas
• Caisse d'Epargne
  41 David Arroyo Mathieu Perget - with a broken radius after a fall at the end of his training on 8 May David Arroyo can unfortunately not try to improve his tenth place from last year (the numbers might not be the final ones for this team)
  42 Joan Horrach
  43 Vladimir Karpets
  44 Pablo Lastras
  49 Luis Pasamontes
  45 Fran Pérez
  46 Mathieu Perget
  47 Joaquim Rodriguez
  48 José Rujano
• Cofidis
  51 Mickaël Buffaz
  52 Hervé Duclos-Lassalle or Kevin de Weert (according to the Giro's website it's Duclos-Lassalle, but according to the team's website it's De Weert; Duclos-Lassalle would participate in the "4 jours de Dunkerque" which will last until Sunday)
  53 Bingen Fernandez
  54 Nicolas Hartmann
  55 Mathieu Heijboer
  56 Yann Huguet
  57 Damien Monier
  58 Nick Nuyens
  59 Rik Verbrugghe
• CSF Group Navigare
  61 Emanuele Sella
  62 Fortunato Baliani
  63 Ariel Maximiliano Richeze - after a positive doping check when he won the 4th stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe on 11 April in Le Mans he has been sent home on 9 May just before the start of the Giro
  64 Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez
  65 Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio
  66 Filippo Savini
  67 Matteo Priamo
  68 Tiziano Dall'Antonia
  69 Domenico Pozzovivo
• Euskaltel - Euskadi
  71 Josu Agirre Aseginolaza
  72 Lander Aperribay
  73 Koldo Fernandez
  74 Aitor Galdos Alonso
  75 Dionisio Galparsoro Martinez
  76 Markel Irizar Aranburu
  77 Inigo Landaluze Intxaurraga
  78 Alan Perez Lezaun
  79 Ivan Velasco Murillo
• Française des Jeux
  81 Mickaël Cherel
  82 Timothy Gudsell
  83 Yauheni Hutarovich
  84 Lilian Jégou
  85 Yoann Le Boulanger
  86 Guillaume Levarlet
  87 Jérémy Roy
  88 Jelle Vanendert or Tom Stubbe (according to the Giro website it's Vanendert, according to the team's website it's Stubbe)
  89 Jussi Veikkanen
• Gerolsteiner
  91 Robert Förster
  92 Thomas Fothen
  93 Johannes Fröhlinger
  94 Oscar Gatto
  95 Sven Krauss
  96 Andrea Moletta
  97 Volker Ordowski
  98 Davide Rebellin
  99 Matthias Russ
• Team High Road
  101 Mark Cavendish
  102 André Greipel
  103 Adam Hansen
  104 Tony Martin
  105 Marco Pinotti
  106 Morris Possoni
  107 Frantisek Rabon
  108 Kanstantsin Siutsou
  109 Bradley Wiggins
• Lampre
  111 Marzio Bruseghin
  112 Paolo Bossoni
  113 Fabio Baldato
  119 Francesco Gavazzi
  114 David Loosli
  117 Mirco Lorenzetto
  118 Mauro Santambrogio
  116 Simon Spilak
  115 Sylvester Szmyd
• Liquigas
  121 Daniele Bennati
  122 Kjell Carlström
  123 Dario Cataldo
  124 Vladimir Mikoljevic
  125 Vincenzo Nibali
  126 Andrea Noe'
  127 Franco Pellizotti
  128 Alessandro Vanotti
  129 Charles Wegelius
• LPR Brakes
  2 Paolo Bailetti
  3 Gabriele Bosisio
  4 Riccardo Chiarini
  5 Giairo Ermeti
  6 Jure Golcer
  1 Danilo di Luca
  7 Daniele Pietropolli
  8 Paolo Savoldelli
  9 Alessandro Spezialetti
• Quick.Step
  131 Paolo Bettini
  132 Alexander Efimkin (and not Vladimir as indicated on the Giro website!!)
  133 Addy Engels
  134 Mauro Facci
  135 Juan Manuel Garate
  136 Hubert Schwab
  137 Kevin Seeldrayers
  138 Andrea Tonti
  139 Giovanni Visconti
• Rabobank
  141 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano
  142 Graeme Brown
  143 Bram de Groot
  144 Theo Eltink
  145 Mathew Hayman
  146 Dmitry Kozontchuk
  147 Gerben Löwik
  148 Paul Martens
  149 Denis Menchov
• Saunier Duval - Scott
  153 Raivis Belohvosciks
  152 Jose Alberto Benitez Roman
  155 David Cañada Gracia
  154 Eros Capecchi
  156 Ermanno Capelli
  157 Iker Camano Ortuzar
  158 Luciano Pagliarini Mendonca
  159 Leonardo Piepoli
  151 Riccardo Ricco'
• S. Diquigiovanni - Androni G.
  The team with the longest web site address of all cycling teams: www.serramentipvcdiquigiovanniandronigiocattoli.com will start in the Giro with the following riders:
  
  162 Alessandro Bertolini
  163 Danilo Hondo
  164 Raffaele Illiano
  165 Ruslan Ivanov
  166 Gabriele Missaglia
  167 Daniele Nardello
  168 Carlos José Ochoa
  169 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez
  161 Gilberto Simoni
• Silence Lotto
  172 Dominique Cornu
  173 Francis de Greef
  174 Dries Devenyns
  175 Nick Gates
  176 Matthew Lloyd
  177 Robbie McEwen
  171 Geert Steurs
  178 Jürgen van den Broeck
  179 Wim Vanhuffel
• Slipstream - Chipotle
  181 Magnus Backstedt
  182 Julian Dean
  183 Ryder Hesjedal
  184 David Millar
  185 Jonathan Patrick McCarty
  186 Danny Pate
  187 Christopher Sutton
  188 Christian Vandevelde
  189 David Zabriskie
• Team CSC
  - Michael Blaudzun
  - Gustav Larsson
  - Anders Lund
  - Jason McCartney
  - Bradley McGee
  - Stuart O'Grady
  - Chris Anker Sørensen
  - Nicki Sørensen
  - Jens Voigt
• Team Milram
  
  Milram will have to do without Alessandro Petacchi in the Giro, due to a big bronchitis and because he "wants to prepare himself in the best possible way for the Tour de France".
  
  - Igor Astarloa
  - Markus Eichler
  - Sergio Ghisalberti
  - Matej Jurco
  - Alberto Ongarato
  - Enrico Poitschke
  - Fabio Sabatini
  - Marco Velo
  - Erik Zabel
• Tinkoff Credit Systems
  211 Evgeni Petrov
  212 Vasil Kiryienka
  213 Luca Mazzanti
  214 Alberto Loddo
  215 Mikhail Ignatiev
  216 Nikolai Trussov
  217 Pavel Brutt
  218 Serguei Klimov
  219 Alexander Serov

The CSF Group-Navigare team will finally not participate in the Giro, because this team had to leave its place to Astana.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Cycling general (except Tour de France)

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