All of your cycling news: March 17, 2010

In today’s cycling news, Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador to face off at Criterium International, Cadel Evans moves to third in world rankings, news from MSR and more:

• Third Pillar Systems has announced title sponsorship of a newly formed elite women’s team out of the San Francisco Bay Area. The company has been the title sponsor of a men’s team for several years and is looking forward to the expansion.
• Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong will face off at the Criterium International at the end of the month. The race was not originally on Contador’s schedule, but he moved his schedule around after finding Paris-Nice more mentally and physically taxing than he had anticipated.
• Contador briefly sat atop the world rankings, but with the conclusion of Tirreno-Adriatico, Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) is now on top. André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) is in second and World Champ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) is in third.
• The Austrian Cycling League will ban radios in all races this season. This is in line with the UCI’s future direction to ban radios at all UCI category 1.2 and 2.2 events. The Tour of Austria will recieve an exception from the ban.
• An apologetic Ricardo Ricco (Flaminia Bossini) returns to competition this weekend after completing his 20 month ban for doping during the 2008 Tour de France. He apologizes to “all cycling enthusiasts, athletes, executives, journalists, our entire world, (for) my mistakes of the past.” and says that they will see a new Ricardo in the peloton. He will make his debut at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi & Bartali scheduled for March 23rd to 27th.

Milan – San Remo:

• BMC Racing Team brings four experienced leaders to Saturday’s 298 km race: Alessandro Ballan (8th in 2006), Marcus Burghardt, George Hincapie (9th in 2001) and Karsten Kroon. The team is planning a reconnaissance of the last 80 km of the race in order to be ready for the final climbs and the last 10 km of downhill off the Poggio. The full squad is: Alessandro Ballan (ITA), Brent Bookwalter (USA), Marcus Burghardt (GER), George Hincapie (USA), Karsten Kroon (NED), Jeff Louder (USA), Michael Schär (SWI) and Danilo Wyss (SUI).
• After his crash in the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) is downplaying his chances for repeat victory in MSR. He says that his form and weight are on par with last year, but he lacks power due to fewer training miles over the winter.
• With Cavendish suffering, many are pegging Tom Boonen as the favorite, but even he says that it is Daniele Bennati who has the form to take “La Primavera”.
• Lampre-Farnese Vini will look to Alessandro Pettachi to repeat his 2005 victory at the race.  Damiano Cunego and Mirco Lorenzetto will also be and. They’ll be joined by Lorenzo Bernucci, Mauro Da Dalto, Francesco Gavazzi, Danilo Hondo and Manuele Mori.
• Giovanni Visconti (ISD) is struggling with muscle problems that are causing an imbalance on the bike. He’s still on the team roster for Milan – San Remo however.
• Italian Filippo Pozzato, MSR winner in 2006, will lead the Katusha this year. He’ll be joined by Marco Bandiera (Ita), Mikhail Ignatiev (RUS), Serguei Ivanov (RUS), Kim Kirchen (LUX), Alexander Kolobnev (RUS), Luca Mazzanti (ITA) and Eduard Vorganov (RUS).

Tags: alberto contador, Alessandro Ballan, Alessandro Pettachi, BMC Racing, BMC Racing Team, cadel evans, Caisse d'Epargne, Criterium International, Damiano Cunego, daniele bennati, danilo hondo, Danilo Wyss, Filippo Pozzato, Francesco Gavazzi, George Hincapie, Giovanni Visconti, HTC-Columbia, Karsten Kroon, katusha, kim kirchen, Lampre-Farnese Vini, Lance Armstrong, marcus burghardt, Mark Cavendish, Michael Schär, Mikhail Ignatiev, Mirco Lorenzetto, ricardo ricco, San Francisco, Settimana Internazionale Coppi & Bartali, The Tour, tirreno-adriatico, Tom Boonen, tour of austria, UCI