Former stage winner will ride Italian Tour again
Six years after winning a stage of the race, French rider Christophe Le Mével looks set to return to the Giro d’Italia in 2011 with the Garmin-Cervélo team. The 30 year old rider transferred to the US squad after several seasons with the FDJ team, and has received his preliminary programme for the next few months.
Le Mével looks set to ride the Tour of the Mediterranean, then will return as defending champion to the Tour du Haut-Var. He will then do Paris-Nice, Criterium International, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. After that, La France Cycliste states that he will prepare for the Giro d’Italia, where he will hope to once again ride strongly.
Garmin-Cervélo GC rider Christian Vande Velde has already said that he intends riding the Tour of California rather than the Giro, preferring to compete in the US after two years experiencing a bad crash in the Italian event. That could increase the possible opportunities for Le Mével, who first showed his Grand Tour ability by taking a solid 26th overall in the 2005 Giro. He also won stage 16, getting clear with riders such as Frank Schleck in a long-distance breakaway move and then breaking away alone with two kilometres left to cover.
The 2003 Tour de l’Avenir mountains jersey victor took another strong result in the 2009 Tour de France. He was tenth overall there and best Frenchman in the race. His chances of riding the event again will depend on how his Giro d’Italia goes, and what kind of form he has in the lead-up to July.