Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling 2008: 'Benna' Comes to America

The Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling, a three race series through eastern Pensylvania during the first week of June, has confirmed its teams and several top-tier riders for the series. Headlining the bunch is the Italian Daniele Bennati, who coincidentally won stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia yesterday in a bunch sprint. The Italian, injured early in the season, has perfectly timed his build up to the grand tour season, and has already netted an impressive three stages in this year's Giro. He'll have a few more chances in his home tour, before he heads to AMerica to continue his preparation for the July Tour de France. The Triple Crown series should provide 'Benna' with a nice week of races by which to stretch his legs against some of America's best.

Also confirmed for the three races are Claudio Corioni and Enrico Franzoi, two promising young stars also riding for the Liquigas team, andfrom Team High Road last year's animator Bernhard Eisel, who took wins at the first two races of the series before narrowly missing out on the Triple Crown with an oh-so-close third at the final race, the Philadelphia International Championship. His teammate meanwhile, Greg Henderson, took the win in Philly in 2006, and is always a threat should the race finish in a bunch sprint.

One name that has not been confirmed is last year's winner, JJ Haedo. The Argentinian has a knack for winning in America, and if he makes it over the pond to compete, will be one of the biggest favorites. However, CSC has remained mum thus far on whether they'll send Haedo stateside to defend his title. In his possible absence, the young Australian Matthew Goss can fill the void, as he finished second last year to his teammate Haedo, after having provided a blistering lead out for JJ.

The 'Argyle Gang' Slipstream will represent as wel, as they'll send a young, motivated team that will surely stir things up and agitate the rest of the field. American Tyler Farrar, who possesses an excellent finishing burst, will be in with a chance, as will breakaway specialists Steven Cozza, magnus Backstedt and 'Meatball' Mike Friedman. Also making the journey will be the 4th place finisher at Paris Roubaix this year, Martin Maaskant. Although he probably won't manage a huge result, Maaskant's star power (and horsepower) will enhance the quality of the field.

In what should be a wirlwind week for American cycling, the Commerce Bank Triple Crown will bring big time professional cycling to America once again, after this year's Tour of California and Tour of Georgia events. With the addition of the above mentioned Euro stars, the series has shown that it has come of age, and is an upper echelon event capable of drawing some of the biggest names in the sport to the United States. It isn't hard to envision the series growing by one more race and slotting in as solid preperation for the upcoming Tour de France.