New Discovery Channel rider, Paolo Savoldelli fell last week, fracturing his collarbone.  The former Giro d?Italia winner will be forced into a one-month rest.  Savoldelli switched to the new
US team after an unsuccessful period with the German T-Mobile squad.

Savoldelli?s team leader, Lance Armstrong, was last week stung by yet another doping probe launched by the French prosecutor Philippe Drouet of the court in Annency.  The latest probe is aimed at investigating Armstrong?s entourage and its involvements in doping allegations reported French newspapers Aujourd'hui and Le Parisien.  The investigation has been given the green light after the
Paris drugs squad interviewed Armstrong?s former Soigneur, Emma O?Reilly, who accused Armstrong of using her to pick up drugs whilst she was in the employment of the
US postal team.  A French attorney, Thibault de Montbrial, who has previously represented discredited Festina directeur sportif Bruno Roussel and is counsel to one of LA Confidential?s authors, Pierre Ballester, accompanied O?Reilly during her questioning.

In a statement released at the end of his teams latest Californian training camp, Armstrong said, "Let me make one thing emphatically clear, I believe in clean and fair competition. As I have said before, I do not use - and have never used - performance-enhancing drugs. I am disappointed in the judge's decision to open this investigation without having talked to me first. I will make myself available anytime and anywhere to meet with the investigators in this case. They are also welcome to review my long history of tests for performance-enhancing drugs, which I have never failed. Last year alone I was tested 22 times by ASO, the UCI, WADA and USADA. I will be competing in Paris-Nice in March. I am confident my name will be cleared, and I look forward to racing in
France for years to come."

The case has been moved to the
province of
Annency due to the existence of a witness from the area.  It has been reported that this witness is Dr. Beno?t Nave, D.O., a former Volvo-Cannondale Mountain Bike Racing team doctor.  Nave treated Armstrong following his crash in the 2003 Dauphine Libere.  "I have worked on several occasions with Lance Armstrong since October 2002," Nave told L'Equipe. "At that time he had already won the Tour four times. We met in
San Francisco and he had a nutritional consultation. So there is nothing to hide in all this, and it is always interesting for me to work with people like Armstrong."

According to the French daily, L?Equipe, Italian fast man Alessandro Petacchi will not be riding in the 2005 Tour de France.  Instead, he will concentrate his efforts on the Giro d?Italia and then the Vuelta a Espana which he believes will better prepare him for the World Championships in
Madrid.

In a much hyped 1hr presentation on prime time TV, the 88th Giro d?Italia was launched on Sunday from
Milan?s
Mazda
Palace on RAI.  The race will begin with a 1.150 km sprint in Reggio Calabria along the
strait of
Messina,