The first stage of cycling’s most prestigious race takes the 180 riders on a 197.5-kilometer (122.7-mile) route Saturday from Brest to Plumelec which favors sprinters.

Alberto Contador won the Tour last year. He can’t race this time because his Astana team is banned by organizers after doping infractions by other riders.

Among the challengers this year are Australia’s Cadel Evans and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde.

Riders will cover more than 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) during the three-week race.

“I’d rate myself as a pretty good chance to win,” said Evans, who has progressively improved from an 8th-place finish in 2005, to fourth the next year and runner up in 2007. One sign of his potential star status? He now has the same bodyguard that Lance Armstrong once had.

The race begins with a 197.5-kilometer (122.7-mile) flat ride through Brittany. For the first time since 1967, the Tour will begin without an opening day prologue.

It also starts without a defending champion for the second straight year. The team of 2007 winner Alberto Contador — Astana — wasn’t invited because of doping scandals it faced in the last two years. American Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.

Among other big names out this year are Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov — who was removed from the Tour last year for a positive test for a blood transfusion which led to the ouster of his entire Astana team — and Astana rider American Levi Leipheimer.

The 2006 Giro d’Italia winner and two time Tour podium finisher Ivan Basso is also absent. The Italian is serving out the last few months of a two-year ban that he received after acknowledging involvement in the Spanish blood doping probe known as Operation Puerto.

“People are talking about the ones who are absent, but once the race starts, people will stop talking about them and start talking about those who are here,” said Patrice Leclerc, head of Tour organizer ASO.

Some are making a statement about drug use. Italy’s Cunego, winner of the 2004 Giro d’Italia, has tattooed “I’m doping free” temporarily on his left arm, a Lampre team spokesman said.

Armstrong, in a published interview, admitted that the Tour is tricky to predict this year but said he liked Evans’ chances, and ruled out Cunego as not a strong enough climber or time trial racer.

“He’ll never win the Tour ... And that’s not a slap at him,” the seven-time champion told cyclingnews.com. “He’s a little guy. I just don’t think he’s a Tour rider.”

Evans said he’s most worried about Russia’s Menchov, the Tour’s best young rider in 2003 and the fifth-place finisher in 2006. Sastre, a Spaniard who has finished in the top 10 for five of the last six Tours, has a strong CSC team including the Schleck brothers — Andy and Frank.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email