Giro Rings In Grand Tours

The 198 riders in the Giro d'Italia, the first of professional cycling's three Grand Tours, headed off last Saturday on their 2,158-mile romp around the boot of the Mediterranean. Stage four concluded earlier today with a win for Mark Cavendish, a 22-year old sprinter from the Isle of Man. Take it as a hopeful sign of renewal.

On the doping front, the Giro is the first significant chance this year for the battered sport to regain some footing, after several years of scandal-laden races.  Missing from this year's tour will be Italian sprinter Alessandro Pettachi, whose one-year ban for a "non-negative" result on excessive asthma medication was upheld just before the start of the race.

Invited, though, with just one week's notice, is the Astana team, led by Lance Armstrong's former director, Johan Bruyneel. Astana was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France after Kazakh team leader Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for a blood transfusion. The team has since been revamped, bringing former Discovery Channel rider and Tour winner Alberto Contador into the fold, with first-class domestique support from American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Kloden.

Follow results at cyclingnews.com or velonews.com, or watch streaming Italian Rai Tre, through the June 1 individual time trial finish in Milan.

--Matthew Fishbane