The Astana team spent time training in the Etna region, which will be part of the ninth stage of this year's Giro d'Italia (May 7 to 29). The team also announced the first riders who are selected for the Grand Tour in Italy.
Guided by their team manager Giuseppe Martinelli, riders trained six hours Saturday, with an elevation of 4000 meters in altitude. "This is a very difficult stage," says Martinelli. "If if we have warm weather in the next Giro, it will be a massacre. I think this stage will be very strategic and there are some who may lose valuable minutes in the general classification, so there will be plenty at stake."
Stage nine on May 15 runs over 159 kilometers from Messina to Mount Etna, an active volcano. The racing will be hot, regardless of the weather. The final climb is almost 40 kilometers long, climbing from 194 meters of altitude to 1904 meters. Only the 3.5 kilometers between San Giovanni la Punta and Mascalucia are somewhat flat, with only 62 meters of uphill. From the latter spot it is a steady climb up to the KOM finish on the Etna.
Martinelli used the training to assess how his riders had come out of the winter months. "Today, they worked very well, they are in good conditions, but the Giro is still far from now."
The manager took the opportunity to announce the core riders who are expected at the start line on may 7 in Venaria Reale/Torino. "Of course, Roman Kreuziger will be our leader and we will also count on Paolo Tiralongo, Francesco Masciarelli, Evgeni Petrov and Fredrik Kessiakoff, who will be our strong support in the next Giro."
Kreuziger spent five years with the Liquigas team, but switched to Astana in the off season. He was a solid ninth in last year's Tour de France, the same ranking he had in 2009. He has ridden the Tour and the Vuelta a España several times, the last two years even in the same year. He has yet to race the Giro, but he has plenty of stage racing experience.
Kreuziger won the Giro di Sardegna in 2010, the Tour de Romandie in 2009 and the Tour de Suisse in 2008. He was also third in the 2009 Tour de Suisse, seventh in the 2008 Tour of Missouri. Kreuziger also knows how to place well in one-day races. He was second in the 2009 Clasica San Sebastian and fifth in the 2010 Amstel Gold Race.
At 25 years of age he is entering an interesting period as a stage racer. With his winning experience on the one-week stage races and his accumulated race experience in the Tour de France and the Vuelta, the Czech rider may well be able to reach his big dream, to win the 2011 Giro. He wants to return to the Tour in 2012 and hopes to challenge Andy Schleck.