Garmin, AG2R and Diquigiovanni name Giro teams

Garmin-Slipstream, Diquigiovanni-Androni and AG2R La Mondiale named their nine-men squads to compete in the centennial Giro d'Italia yesterday. The three-week stage race starts with a team time trial Saturday in Venice.

Garmin-Slipstream: Christian Vande Velde will lead the American team in its defence of its 2008 team time trail win. The team released the final eight supporting men: Bradley Wiggins, Cameron Meyer, Danny Pate, David Millar, David Zabriskie, Julian Dean, Tom Danielson and Tyler Farrar.

"The team has been training hard for this race and we'd of course love to get the maglia rosa again, but we will be happy with a few strong performances," said Directeur Sportif Matt White.

Diquigiovanni-Androni: Gianni Savio announced the signing of Leonardo Bertagnolli from team Amica Chips just for the Giro d'Italia. The Italian will be the eighth man to help support two-time race winner Gilberto Simoni. The other seven are Rubens Bertogliati, Alessandro Bertolini, Francesco De Bonis, Carlos José Ochoa, Jackson Rodriguez, Michele Scarponi and José Serpa.

AG2R La Mondiale: The French team will help Slovenian Tadej Valjavec better his 13th overall from last year with Renaud Dion, Alexander Efimkin, Sébastien Hinault, Yuriy Krivtsov, Julien Loubet, Jean-Charles Senac, Blaise Sonnery and Guillaume Bonnafond.

"The first objective in the Giro is to place a rider in the top ten, and we count on our leader Tadej Valjavec. There is also the objective of stage wins with riders like Alexander Efimkin and Yuriy Krivtsov."