Four can win Giro but not Armstrong - Ballan

Lance Armstrong could challenge on a few stages in the Giro d'Italia but he is not one of the four riders equipped to seal overall victory, world champion Alessandro Ballan has said.

The centenary edition of the world's second biggest stage race starts with a team time trial on the Lido in Venice tomorrow and finishes on May 31 in Rome.

Lampre's Ballan, who won the world title in Varese in September but misses the Giro after suffering a virus, said 2006 winner Ivan Basso was the clear favourite.

"I think the favourite is Basso with outsiders including my team-mates Marzio Bruseghin and Damiano Cunego and I would say Levi Leipheimer," Ballan told Reuters.

"These four will fight it out for victory."

Seven-times Tour de France winner Armstrong, who returned to cycling in January to promote his Livestrong cancer charity after over three years in retirement, broke his collarbone in Spain in March and has only just regained fitness.

"If he hadn't broken his collarbone he would have definitely had a chance," Italian Ballan said.

"But he had this problem so in my opinion he will use the Giro to get in shape for the Tour de France (in July).

"He might be a challenger for a few stages but I don't think so for the overall race."

Armstrong, 37, has acknowledged he is underprepared for his first Giro but said he would be disappointed not to win a stage.

The American's Astana team will receive a warning from the International Cycling Union (UCI) after some of their riders were not paid last month.

Armstrong does not receive a salary from the Kazakh-funded team and instead gets money from endorsement deals.

Astana's Alberto Contador, last year's Giro winner, is not competing this time so he can concentrate on the Tour but fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre, the 2008 Tour champion, will set off from Venice with his Cervelo team.

Another compatriot Alejandro Valverde is not racing the Giro and must go before an Italian anti-doping tribunal on Monday after being accused of being involved in Spain's Operacion Puerto doping scandal.

Valverde, the world's top-ranked rider last year, has denied wrongdoing.

Liquigas rider Basso served a two-year ban after admitting his involvement in Puerto but denied he actually doped.

The Italian returned to competitive action last October.