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Stage 6
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Stage 7

Victorious Blijlevens backs Italian protest

By Mike Price

LANCIANO, Italy, May 21 (Reuters) - Dutchman Jeroen Blijlevens backed the Italian riders in their protests on Friday about doping checks after clinching his second Giro d'Italia victory in five days.

"There are problems and there is a need for controls, but not so many," said Blijlevens, after outsprinting Thursday's victor, Romans Vainsteins of Latvia, in the seventh stage from Foggia.

"We were all checked before the Giro began, and we cannot have others asking for more tests. It is okay for the (governing body) Union Cycliste Internationale to test us, but not the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) as well."

Before the 157km leg began in Foggia on Friday, Giro favourite Marco Pantani warned there would be a walk-out if CONI insisted on more tests for Italian riders.

CONI is only testing Italians in their effort to clamp down on the drugs problem.

Laurent Jalabert, who kept the overall Giro leader's pink jersey for a fourth day, declined to be drawn about the threatened boycott of Friday's stage.

"That was this morning. For me, it has finished. Let us talk about the racing," he said.

"If I lose the jersey in Saturday's stage, I hope that the time gap is small enough for me to recapture it in Sunday's time trial at Ancona.

"I have the morale for Saturday's mountainous finish and I am ready, but there is only seven seconds between me and (second-placed) Danilo di Luca."

The 20km-climb to the finish of the Grand Sasso d'Italia will not suit Jalabert and it could well break sprinters like Blijlevens.

Friday's race over the flatlands of the Adriatic coast saw Italians Carlo Bianchi and Rodolfo Ongarato race into a lead of four minutes.

Their sortie lasted 78 kms before they fell back 10 kms from the finish.

Blijlevens, the race leader for two days after winning at Messina on Monday, then struck again to beat Vainsteins with Italian Fabrizio Guidi third.


LANCIANO, Italy, May 21  (Reuters)  - Leading placings in the 157-km seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race from Foggia to Lanciano on Friday:

Stage 7

1. Jeroen Blijlevens (Netherlands) TVM 4 hours 12 minutes 6 seconds 2. Romans Vainsteins (Latvia) Vini Caldirola
3. Fabrizio Guidi (Italy) Polti
4. Paolo Bettini (Italy) Mapei
5. Mariano Piccoli (Italy) Lampre

6. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy) Navigare
7. Gabriele Balducci (Italy) Navigare
8. Gabriele Missaglia (Italy) Lampre
9. Angel Edo (Spain) Kelme
10. Gian Matteo Fagnini (Italy) Saeco

11. Alain Turicchia (Italy) Riso Scotti
12. Dario Pieri (Italy) Navigare
13. Gerrit Glomser (Austria) Navigare
14. Marco Gili (Italy) Amica Chips
15. Sergei Ivanov (Russia) TVM

16. Massimiliano Gentili (Italy) Cantina Tollo
17. Paolo Savoldelli (Italy) Saeco
18. Andrea Ferrigato (Italy) Ballan
19. Danilo di Luca (Italy) Cantina Tollo
20. Giuliano Figueras (Italy) Mapei all same time

 Overall standings:

 

Leading overall standings:

1. Laurent Jalabert (France) ONCE 31 hours 34 minutes 7 seconds
2. Di Luca 7 seconds behind
3. Savoldelli 16
4. Davide Rebellin (Italy) Polti 20
5. Marco Pantani (Italy) Mercatone Uno 22

6. Dario Frigo (Italy) Saeco
7. Ivan Gotti (Italy) Polti all the same time
8. Gilberto Simoni (Italy) Ballan 25
9. Ivanov 31
10. Oscar Camenzind (Switzerland) Lampre 32

11. Nicklas Axelsson (Sweden) Navigare same time
12. Andrea Noe (Italy) Mapei 33
13. Enrico Zaina (Italy) Mercatone Uno
14. Daniel Clavero (Spain) Vitalicio Seguros
15. Jose Maria Jimenez (Spain) Banesto

16. Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia) Mobilvetta
17. Santiago Blanco (Spain) Vitalicio Seguros all same time
18. Marco Velo (Italy) Mercatone Uno 44
19. Stefano Garzelli (Italy) Mercatone Uno
20. Nicola Miceli (Italy) Liquigas both same time