RadioShack's woes continued Friday after the American cycling team announced that Dane Jakob Fuglsang, their leader for the Giro d'Italia, would miss the Italian stage race due to injury. Fuglsang was to lead their bid for the Giro's pink jersey but did not take the start of the Tour of Romandie third stage on Friday due to "inflammation of the articular capsule and ligament of the left knee", said a team statement.

It added: "The team management and medical staff have decided to take the Danish rider off the team's roster for the Giro d'Italia." The Giro is the first of the season's three Grand Tours, and starts on May 5 for three weeks of racing. Fuglsang said: "I am very disappointed. The Giro was my big objective for this year. Yesterday I had so much pain in the last 40 km, I was just miserable. "At that point I realised that it might be the end of my Giro dream. Moreover I was already running behind my schedule after the scaphoid bone fracture in the Tour of Catalunya."Team Doctor Andreas Goesele said that although the Dane could have made the start line, "with a quick and intensive therapy" a good result would "be out of the question".

RadioShack have had a miserable campaign so far this season, with Swiss Fabian Cancellara finishing second at Milan-SanRemo and then crashing out of Paris-Roubaix with a broken collarbone. The team, run by Johan Bruyneel, had hoped siblings Andy and Frank Schleck would salvage their spring campaign at the hillier Ardennes classics however the Luxemburgers flopped in races in which they normally perform well. The team statement added: "This injury is another setback after the bad luck the team already encountered in the spring Classics with Fabian Cancellara's collar bone fracture."