The 93rd edition of the Tour of Italy in 2010 will start in the Netherlands on May 8 before embarking on a 3,416.5km journey around the Italian peninsula and ending in Verona on May 30.

The 93rd edition of the Tour of Italy in 2010 will start in the Netherlands on May 8 before embarking on a 3,416.5km journey around the Italian peninsula and ending in Verona on May 30.

That was the course unveiled in Milan on Saturday with 21 stages and plenty of tough climbs.

Reigning champion Denis Menchov, the Russian Rabobank rider, was among the guests at the official presentation alongside former winner Damiano Cunego and Italian stars of the past such as Mario Cipolini.

There was also a chance for Italy to get to know Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen, a Dutch actress and presenter who will be the face of the 2010 Giro and who also happens to be the girlfriend of new Inter Milan playmaker Wesley Sneijder.

The opening stage will be a timetrial around Amsterdam which will also host the start of the next two stages, ending in Utrecht and then Middleburg before the riders take a flight to Italy.

It will be the ninth time the Giro has begun outside of Italy, the first time being in 1965 when it started in San Marino.

Troubled Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke, seen here in 2003, had been drinking and vomited before he died at a Senegalese seaside hotel

Troubled Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke had been drinking and vomited before he died at a Senegalese seaside hotel, staff said here on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old’s body was found in a room at the hotel, ‘La maison bleue’, where he checked in at 0200 local time (0000GMT) on Monday.

“When he arrived, he was drunk,” a hotel employee told AFP.

“He was with a Senegalese woman. He came for one night and we served him a beer,” the employee said, asking not to be named.

“About four in the morning his girlfriend came and asked for a mop because he had been sick,” the man said after being interview by police.

“By one p.m. (Monday) he had not come out of his room. About eight p.m. my boss called me and said the client had died.”

An AFP reporter and photographer were allowed into the room on Tuesday from where the body had been removed by emergency workers in Saly, one of Senegal’s main resorts, 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of the capital Dakar.

Vandenbroucke made his professional debut in 1994 and recorded 51 victories, including the 1999 Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic, his career highlight.

In 2002, Vandenbroucke was twice stopped by police under the influence of alcohol at the wheel of a car. Later that year, a police search at his home uncovered a large quantity of doping substances.

In Belgium, family and friends recalled a deeply troubled if talented rider.

Vandenbroucke had suffered from depression and two years ago tired to commit suicide after his wife said she was divorcing him.

“Sadly this has only partly come as a surprise, for we knew he was not doing too well,” said his uncle, former racer Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke.

“He was up and down, both in terms of his health and his morale. He left for Senegal on Sunday.”

His father Jean-Jacques said Frank had gone on holiday in a happy mood.

“He left in good health, he was beaming because he had found a team for next year. So we are stunned by the news.”

He said he was waiting to hear how he died but would not blame a sport which has been tainted with drug problems.

“He had his problems, but he was not the only one. He was part of a system. The only reproach you could have is his turning professional at 19, younger than the others.

“He was perhaps still a bit too delicate but you can’t take away his victories and his class.

“I don’t think he had problems with his sport but with his private life, where he suffered a lot.”

In 2003, when he rode for the Quick Step team, Vandenbroucke appeared to be on the way back after a second-place finish in the prestigious Tour of Flanders classic, but he sank into depression the following year.

“Frank had perhaps too much talent and a slightly weak character,” said all-time great Eddy Merckx.

Le Soir newspaper called him cycling’s “enfant terrible … the James Dean of his generation … an accursed star impossible to seize”.

“An exceptional champion, probably the finest Belgian cyclist since Eddy Merckx, Frank Vandenbroucke lived too fast, without noticing it, on the inebriety of success.”

Cadel Evans of Australia celebrates after winning the elite men's road race of the UCI cycling road World Championships in Mendrisio, southern of Switzerland. Evans ended Australia's long wait for cycling's coveted rainbow jersey when he pulled off a coup to win the men's road race here at the world cycling championships on Sunday.

Mention Cadel Evans’ name to cyclists, fans or media and the reaction you get is likely to contain a mixture of admiration, wonder and mystery.

Evans, a two-time Tour de France runner-up, has become almost as famous for his unpredictable nature on and off the bike as he has for coming agonisingly close to twice winning the race’s famous yellow jersey.

In spite of his remarkable talent, more than once Evans has had to face down accusations of being a ‘choker’ who doesn’t have the mental tools to win the big races.

But on Sunday, the 32-year old chose one of cycling’s biggest stages, the elite road race at the world championships, to answer back, handing Australia their first ever men’s gold in the elite event.

It wasn’t the yellow jersey. But for many aficionados the famous rainbow jersey, which Evans will wear for the next year, is the next best thing.

“The world’s been telling me for years I can’t win big races, can’t win one day races, because my job is to win stage races, and then today I come out and win the world championship, I don’t quite believe it,” said Evans.

“This is an answer to those criticisms that I’ve had, saying I never attack.”

What is arguably Australia’s biggest road victory on the world stage could, more importantly, relaunch a career that has also made Evans something of an internet comedy hit.

Known for occasional petulant outbursts, one famous Youtube clip shows Evans striking out at a journalist who got too close for comfort to his injured shoulder, while in another he is heard threatening another for getting too close to his dog.

On the bike Evans has always impressed, but come up short of securing career-changing wins.

He made his name as an exciting young mountain biking talent who dominated the sport without winning a world championship.

Cadel Evans

After making the gradual transition to the road, he came close to winning his first major Tour at the three-week Giro d’Italia in 2002 before a spectacular collapse meant he finished the race in 14th place.

That served to introduce the Aussie, then only 25, as a possible future winner of the Tour de France.

But after an impressive eighth place finish overall on his debut in 2005, and a fourth place finish in 2006, in 2007 Evans missed out on winning cycling’s holy grail by 23secs to Spaniard Alberto Contador.

A year later, with Contador absent, Evans finished second to another Spaniard, Carlos Sastre. And in both 2007 and 2008 Evans had also finished runner-up in the Dauphine Libere, a week-long warm-up for the Tour.

A catastrophic 2009 campaign saw Evans finished over 45 minutes behind Contador, a terrible start being compounded by physical and emotional problems that left many wondering how he could bounce back.

Evans made amends with a solid third place finish last Sunday at the Tour of Spain, which he could have won had it not been for more, rather typical, bad luck.

Nevertheless, facing arguably stronger Spanish and Italian rivals here for Sunday’s 262.2km epic race, barely anybody had Evans marked down to win.

Ironically, that may have helped his cause.

Gold medalist Cadel Evans of Australia

As key rivals Damiano Cunego of Italy and Spaniard Alejandro Valverde were among those being closely marked late on the final lap of a 13.8 km circuit, Evans surged ahead in the final 10km to leave them all in his wake.

A more incisive attack by Evans at the foot of the final climb then left Alexandr Kolobnev and Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez fighting for the minor medals.

Not always known for his tactical astuteness, Evans admitted his trump card decision wasn’t all his own doing.

“It was (coach) Neil Stephen’s doing, he wanted to hold back and wait (for me to attack) till later,” said Evans when asked about his strategy.

The Italians finished without a medal for the first time in years, but their coach, Franco Ballerini, could only admit: “You have to applaud Evans. Not only did he resist, he went away on his own and won.

“(Fabian) Cancellara was maybe the strongest rider in the race but Evans was definitely a deserved winner.”

Evans’ Tour of Spain campaign undoubtedly gave him the form needed to shine, only three kilometres from his Italian home in Stabio where he lives with his wife Chiara, a classical pianist.

And in typical, unpredictable fashion Evans – later met with banners and his local fan club chanting in Italian ‘There’s only one Cadel Evans’ – said his ride had nothing to do with restoring battered pride.

“Coming second so many times can be demoralising. You put in the same work, and it’s just as difficult for me, as the guy who wins the race,” he added.

“But I’ve been thinking about this race for the past two years, and I put in the hard work preparing for it at the Vuelta (Tour of Spain).

“To win a world title here, after having seven world championship medals at home, none of which are gold, is quite exceptional.”

Spanish ace Alejandro Valverde, seen here in September 2009, is continuing to weather the storm caused by ongoing doping allegations in the lead-up to his bid for cycling's famous rainbow jersey.

Spanish ace Alejandro Valverde is continuing to weather the storm caused by ongoing doping allegations in the lead-up to his bid for cycling’s famous rainbow jersey.

Valverde, crowned the Tour of Spain champion last week, is among a handful of favourites for the gold medal in the gruelling 262.2km men’s road race that will bring the curtain down on the world cycling championships.

But a few external forces are making sure that his path to possible glory on Sunday is not a smooth one.

Valverde is already serving a two-year racing ban in Italy after the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) claimed that a blood sample, taken from the Spaniard at last year’s Tour de France which passed through Italy, matched one of dozens discovered during the ‘Operation Puerto’ raid at a Spanish doping laboratory in 2006 which uncovered doping products, blood samples and codenames of athletes.

That sanction ruled Valverde out of competing at this year’s Tour de France because the race passed through Italy.

The Spaniard has since lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but if CAS uphold the CONI ban the International Cycling Union (UCI) have pledged to extend Valverde’s ban worldwide.

And, some UCI officials now appear to be tightening the screw ahead of one of cycling’s big annual rendez-vous.

UCI Pro Tour president Vittorio Adorni reportedly told Corriere della Sera newspaper earlier this week: “The fact that Valverde has been condemned by the Italian Olympic Committee and is still competing is shameful and disturbing.”

UCI president McQuaid said Wednesday he would make no commment on the Valverde case.

Yet the fact that Adorni is Italian, as is one of Valverde’s biggest rivals for the coveted road race crown – Damiano Cunego – is being seen as no coincidence.

If things seemed bad for Valverde, they only got worse late on Wednesday.

The Spanish team thought that despite his racing ban Valverde would be safe from police questioning and booked into a hotel near the scenic Lake Como.

But they are taking no chances. Early Thursday, the Spaniards officially announced they had moved out of their Italian hotel and gone across the border to Lugano in Switzerland.

In the past decade the Spaniards and Italians have become key players in the men’s elite race at the world road race championships, winning the title four times apiece.

But it is now suspected their rivalry is spilling over into the corridors of power which govern the sport.

Spanish national federation president Juan Carlos Castano reacted angrily to Adorni’s statements to the Italian press, claiming the Spaniards have nothing to hide.

Some are now wondering whether the Italians’ apparent badgering of Valverde, who has consistently denied any link to the Operation Puerto, is designed to avenge the two-year ban handed out to Italian star Ivan Basso.

Basso, the 2006 Tour of Italy champion, was the biggest, and one of the only, names in cycling to be sanctioned for his involvement in the affair and served a two-year ban from 2007 to 2009.

Valverde is set to face a CAS hearing in October.