A Giro for Bruseghin

By Gregor Brown in Venice

Team Lampre's Marzio Bruseghin was pleased with the 2009 Giro d'Italia route race organiser RCS Sport presented Saturday night in Venice. The Italian finished third in 2008 and believes more is possible next year with a course lacking the high-mountain stages.

"I think that last year gave me the security that I can be at the top-level in the Giro d'Italia. This race has less of the difficult climbs that are usually hard for me, so in theory it is adapted for me," said Bruseghin to Cyclingnews.

The three-week Italian stage race, May 9 to 31, starts in Venice. It immediacy hits the mountains in stages four and five, but lacks the famed mountaintop finishes. It features a time trial in Liguria that is long by Giro standards, 61.7km, before the final stages are raced in the south.

"I like this time trial, demanding and hard. It will be one of the favorable days, there will be the hard climbs though and I hope it all equals out."

Bruseghin won this year's 39.4-kilometre time trial stage to Urbino. He out-performed Alberto Contador, Tour de France winner and eventual winner of the Giro, by eight seconds.

The race will travel from the Liguria region to Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Le Marche, Abruzzo and Campania. Even if the mountain stages in these regions don't have the snow-covered mountaintops, they will split the classification.

Bruseghin may work for Lampre teammate and 2004 Giro winner, Damiano Cunego. It is more probable, like this year, that he will lead the team and Cunego will focus on the Tour de France once again.