Blow as Rebellin ruled out of Giro
MILAN, Italy -- Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin has ruled himself out of the Giro d'Italia just days before the prologue in Reggio Calabria, ANSA news agency reported Tuesday.
The 33-year-old all-rounder, one of the Gerolsteiner team's main hopes, says he is suffering from fatigue after the three Ardennes Classics.
The Amstel Gold, the Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege were raced over distances in excess of 250km all within the space of eight days.
Rebellin became the first rider to win all three of the Ardennes classics last year.
But this year he was dominated by compatriot Danilo Di Luca, of the Liquigas team, who won at Amstel and the Fleche.
Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov of T-Mobile put an end to Di Luca's bid to emulate Rebellin's feat of 2004 when he won at Liege ten days ago.
Rebellin's absence is bad news for Gerolsteiner following German Fabian Wegmann's late pull-out.
Swiss climber Sven Montgomery will now spearhead the German team's bid in the three-week race, being held May 7-29.
