Giro d'Italia 2008 - Stage Eleven

The 2008 Giro d'Italia started from Palermo, southern Italy on May 10 and is held over 21 stages until June 1.

Stage 11 - May 21 Urbania - Cesena 193km

Alessandro Bertolini won Wednesday's 11th stage with fellow Italian Giovanni Visconti holding on to the race leader's pink jersey. The stage was hit by bad weather which resulted in a few mishaps - more

Stage 11 covered roads where former troubled Italian cycling great Marco Pantani, who died in 2004, used to train the Italian.

Quickstep

Giovanni Visconti's bum - fotoreporter sirotti

Giro leader Giovanni Visconti survived a scare 30 kilometres from the finish when he hit the ground in company with several of his rivals.

He ended the day undergoing x-rays on an injured left elbow and right hand.

"I felt sick and vomited during the stage," he reported.

Visconti paid tribute to his teammates, world champion Paolo Bettini and Andrea Tonti. "They literally kept me going right to the finish."

Alessandro Bertolini, a professional since 1993, was winning his first stage in the Giro. "I've achieved my dream. I managed to win despite a fall and a knock I took to the elbow.

I've never succeeded in winning a stage on the Giro and I have to thank (Gilberto) Simoni who gave me space and told me to go for the win."

Mauricio Soler, the king of the mountains at the 2007 Tour de France has pulled out suffering from an injury from a crash on an earlier stage - more

Italian Andrea Moletta, was forced by his Gerolsteiner team to retire before Wednesday's stage after his father was implicated in a drugs probe by the Italian police.

Andreas Kloden after giving some grief to his fellow riders on the rest day, now finds himself having to explain his position regarding the 2008 Olympics. He insists he will show up at the Beijing Games despite previously intimating he would no longer race for his country.

It rained! - fotoreporter sirotti

"I am evidently absolutely ready to race for the German federation in Beijing," said the 32-year-old in an email to federation vice-chairman Udo Sprenger.

A report in Tuesday's La Gazzetta dello Sport suggested Kloden had closed the door on riding for the German team at the Olympics. The Italian paper quoted Kloden, currently riding in the Tour of Italy, as saying he wished "to ride two road races" including a time-trial over the summer, but "not for Germany.

In the interview he added: "It can't be done - with Germany it's finished for me."

Federation sporting director Burckhard Bremer said he believed Kloden was still a possible candidate for the Olympic squad.

In his message to Sprenger, Kloden said he was simply criticising the way the German media addressed doping in his sport. The veteran spent the bulk of his career to date with Telekom, then T-Mobile, after debuting in 1998, but eight years later he jumped ship and in 2007 his team folded amid a storm over doping allegations in Germany shrouding the team and its stars - though he has always insisted he is clean.
Twice runner-up in the Tour de France, Kloden joined Astana in late 2006 but the team have not been invited to this summer's Tour.

Kloden has been accused, notably by German performance enhancing drugs expert Werner Franke, of blood doping in the 2006 Tour. He lives in Switzerland near friend and former teammate Jan Ullrich.

Climber Leonardo Piepoli of the Saunier Duval team had been suffering from severe pains in his ribs after falling during the stage.

Piepoli, the main lieutenant of Riccardo Ricco, fell about 27 kilometres from the finish line at Cesena but the pains caused him concern and a fracture has not been ruled out.

"I feel very bad," said Piepoli. "Fortunately the next two stages are easy and I hope the pain will have got easier before Saturday's mountain stage."

Team CSC like many others suffered in the crashes - "It was a really nervous stage and just about all our guys were involved in crashes. Nicki Sorenesen crashed and lost some time as a result, but like the others, who went down, he got off lightly without any injuries. Jens almost made the break and is generally feeling pretty strong so he'll probably try again. And now we have two flat stages before hitting the really big mountains this weekend," said Kim Andersen.

Click on Map to enlarge

Thursday's 12th stage, over a level 172km from Forli to Carpi, will favour specialist sprinters.

Marco Velo (Milram) "Tomorrow, I think, we will have another group sprint. We will try to do a good performance for Zabel’s sprint in the final.”