Following the announcement of next year's Tour de France route, Phonak's Floyd Landis has signalled his intention to ride next year's Giro d'Italia as "a perfect warm-up for the Tour". Landis, who will almost certainly go into next year's Tour as Phonak's co-captain, will ride the Italian race to gauge where he's at in his preparations for another crack at la Grande Boucle.
He'll be up against this year's Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli, who has indicated the Giro will be his principal objective in 2006. He'll be aiming for his third victory in Italy's grand tour, and Discovery boss Johan Bruyneel is confident in Savoldelli's ability to take a third overall win, saying, "Paolo possesses the physical qualities to take the win. He's good against the clock, and an equally good climber... as an Italian, he has to make the Giro a priority."
