Italy is hoping Lance Armstrong's collar-bone fracture in a Spanish fall Monday won't keep him out of his first Giro d'Italia. ''I'm sure he'll recover quickly,'' said Ivan Basso, the Italian rider who has been seen as Armstrong's main rival in the round-Italy cycle race, which starts in Venice on May 9. ''I hope he makes it back for the centenary Tour,'' Basso said, adding that ''it would be terrible to see his comeback spoiled''. Sports doctors told the Italian press that they'd seen other riders make fast enough recoveries from such injuries, although Armstrong at 37 was older than most. ''A collar-bone break is one of the most common cycling injuries,'' National Cycling Doctors' Association chief Daniele Tarsi told La Repubblica.
''There are well-known precedents for a fast recovery, such as (Latvia's Piotr) Ugrumov who broke his clavicle just a week before the 1994 Tour de France''.
Tarsi recalled that Ugrumov ''had to take it very easy on the first week but went on to win two stages and ended up second to (Miguel) Indurain (of Spain)''.
Trauma expert Enrico Castellucci of Lucca agreed.
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, which organised the Giro, he said he had seen ''athletes in similar circumstances back on indoor training bikes ''within a couple of weeks'' and back on the road ''within three''.
Asked if Armstrong could make it back 47 days after his fall, Castellucci said ''I realistically believe it is possible for Armstrong to recover in time''.
Armstrong left Spain for his home in Austin, Texas Tuesday after Monday's fall during the first stage of the Vuelta di Castilla e Leon.
Sources close to the rider said he would likely be operated on.
The minor Spanish stage race was the latest stage in Armstrong's comeback after Saturday's Milan-San Remo where he tooled in a leisurely 125th.
Seven-time-straight Tour winner Armstrong came out of retirement at the start of the year to bid for his first Giro-Tour double and help boost his cancer research projects.
The Milan-Sanremo was his first European test, but he only saw it as a run-out.
Before the race, the Tour de France legend confirmed that his first Giro d'Italia - which he had previously always snubbed during his preparations for the Tour - and his 8th Tour were his season goals.
''My targets are the Giro and Tour and I want to be in top form for both,'' said Armstrong, who has never won the world's top two stage races in the same year.
On another issue close to his heart, cancer research, Armstrong said he would meet Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi ''shortly'' to bid to boost research funds.
The two men are cancer survivors.
This year's 100th Giro runs from May 9-May 31.
The 96th Tour goes from July 4-26.
Armstrong and his main rival, Basso, received surprise anti-doping visits in the run-up to the Sanremo - Armstrong on Tuesday and Basso Friday morning.
Basso, 31, who completed a 16-month doping ban in the Spanish drug case Operacion Puerto in October, continued his comeback with a fifth-place finish in the Tirreno-Adriatic last week.
