One day before the start of the 2008 Giro d’Italia, Steve Morabito joins the Astana team in Palermo. The Swiss rider will replace Spanish rider Benjamin Noval. Noval, who earlier in the week already took Dmitry Muravyev’s spot in the team, suffers from enterocolitis, an intestinal infection. The roommate of Alberto Contador became sick on Wednesday night, could not eat and lacks the energy necessary to start in as demanding a race as the 2008 Tour of Italy.

“We waited as long as possible to make a decision”, comments team director Sean Yates. “Friday 10 AM was our deadline. We then had to register the team. Benjamin did a test this morning. The result was negative. A team time trial is such a demanding, hard discipline. It is not safe to let him be part of the team. We hope Steve Morabito arrives in time. Steve has the right condition. He proved that already in the Tour de Romandie, where he was one of the best helpers for overall winner Andreas Klöden.”

The final Astana team line-up for the 2008 Giro d'Italia (May 10th - June 1st):
Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador, Andreas Klöden, Assan Bazayev, Antonio Colom, Vladimir Gusev, Maxim Iglinskiy, Andrej Mizurov and of course Steve Morabito.