Confident Roche set to continue with strategy

CYCLING/Giro d'Italia:Irish rider Nicolas Roche will continue his Giro d'Italia today when the race hits the first mountains of the three-week tour. The riders had a break from racing yesterday due to their air transfer from Sardinia to mainland Italy.

Roche will be satisfied with his Giro so far, confidence boosted by his strong attack inside the final kilometre of Monday's stage. His goals are to finish the Grand Tour and also to ride aggressively on selected stages of the race.

The fourth day of racing will begin in Salerno and take the riders an undulating and twisting 153 kilometres along the Amalfi coast, inland close to Pompeii and then up the tough final climb to Montevergine di Mercogliano.

Enrico Gasparotto (Liquigas) continues to lead overall but the uphill finish means team-mate Danilo Di Luca could well be back in the pink jersey by the end of the stage. His closest rivals are likely to be Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital), Gilberto Simoni and Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval-Prodir), world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), Paolo Savoldelli (Astana), Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner), Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo) and Yaroslav Popovych (Discovery Channel).

Meanwhile, Floyd Landis, winner of last year's Tour de France, kicked off his 10-day doping hearing on Monday with a denial he had doped himself and criticism of testing procedures in cycling's top race.

Landis's attorney Maurice Suh said in his opening statement the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was so determined to prove Landis guilty they had turned the case into a "holy mess". Landis is present at the hearing which is being held at Pepperdine University.

Last week, the cyclist said he had been offered a reduced sentence by USADA if he offered "incriminating evidence" about fellow US cyclist and seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong, who was cleared last year of using illegal substances.

If found guilty of doping, Landis faces a two-year suspension and the possibility of becoming the first Tour winner to be stripped of his title.

In other news, double Irish road race champion Siobhan Dervan finished 59th out of 165 starters in Sunday's Tour de Berne World Cup race in Switzerland. Edita Pucinskaite (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung) won the race ahead of world champion Marianne Vos (Team DSB Bank) and Oenone Wood (T-Mobile Team).

TOUR DE BERNE(Switzerland - World Cup), 1 Edita Pucinskaite (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung) 3hrs 6mins 33secs; 2 M Vos (Team DSB Bank) at 11 secs; 3 O Wood (T-Mobile Team); 4 N Cooke (Raleigh Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team); 5 E Lutz (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung); 6 A Graus (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung) all same time. Irish: 59 Siobhan Dervan (Lotto-Belisol Ladiesteam) same time (165 starters).