Cycling: Pantani may snub Tour defence

MARCO PANTANI, the Tour de France winner, hinted that he may not defend his crown this year, choosing to concentrate on the Giro d'Italia instead. "I've already started training again after the fall I had in Spain," he said, referring to an accident that forced him out of the Catalonia Week race last week.

"On Monday I leave to race in the Tour of the Low Countries that lasts five days. It will serve as good preparation for the Giro which, for me, remains the most important appointment of the season."

Pantani, who last August became the first Italian since Felice Gimondi 33 years ago to win the world's most prestigious cycle race, said he expected to race in the Tour of Spain and the World Championships in Italy later in the year.

The Belgian Andrei Tchmil's surprise win in the Milan to San Remo has whetted his appetite for a triumph in tomorrow's Tour of Flanders but three compatriots, includingJohan Museeuw, are out to stop him. "These races [Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix next week] are part of the sacred history of cycling and I want my name in the history books," said the veteran Tchmil. He believes his experience could play a decisive role in tomorrow's race in the northern half of Belgium.

Another Belgian, TVM's Peter Van Petegem, is also among the favourites. He won the three-day De Panne race, that was interrupted by a doping scandal, in the same region on Thursday.