Van Goolen targets Giro

Jürgen Van Goolen will ride the Giro d'Italia in 2009 for Team Saxo Bank and will be the team's GC candidate in the race, although the Belgian said that he would rather have chosen to ride the other two Grand Tours.

"Jürgen will be doing the Giro next year and will have a great chance of making a good result," team spokesman Brian Nygaard told Cyclingnews.

"The team management is giving me a free role" in the Giro, Van Goolen said to sportwereld.be. "After my strong Vuelta they want to see how well I can do in the general classification of a Grand Tour." He admitted that he himself would have preferred to ride the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

The 28-year-old finished 16th overall in the Vuelta this year. In the coming season he will ride Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a País Vasco as warm-ups for the Spring Classics and his Grand Tour targets.