The list of SRAM RED-equipped teams for this years Giro will include Team Astana, Fuji-Servetto, Milram, and Team Saxo Bank.

For Team Astana it appears that Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong will start as co-leaders. Levi has several top stage victories this year and his form seems to be holding after a convincing win at the smaller, but no less challenging, SRAM Tour of the Gila stage race in the U.S. Lance is expected to be in good form but his training has been less than ideal with his collar bone fracture, but the amount of time trials could fall in his favor, 96.6kms.

The World’s number one team Saxo Bank will toss Voigt and Cancellara into the mix to add excitement to the time trials as well as ‘classically’ challenging stages. Look for Jason McCartney to do what he can in the overall, the maturing American has shown stage race promise and will look to impress over the three weeks.

Fuji-Servetto has been laying low on the ProTour scene this year and comes in with
a developing team who will looking for opportunities to secure stage wins.

The German Milram team are great opportunists and will try and take stages when possible Robert Forster and the Fothen brothers.

The 2009 Giro d'Italia celebrates 100 years in 2009 and this year’s route will feature 21 stages, 3455 kms, with six mountain finishes and three time trials. A 20.5km team time trial opens the event and the final stage is a scenic 15.5km time trial around Rome. The second half of the race will provide the true selection for the leaders and stages and according to experts will be surprisingly difficult.

SRAM RED took its first Grand Tour victory (in its first attempt) in 2009 with late starter Alberto Contador (Team Astana), who was called away from vacation only to control the climbs and dominate the time trails and win by almost two minutes over SRAM-equipped Ricardo Ricco (Saunier Duval).