FRANCE: CYCLE RACING - Tour de France riders prepare before the prologue

Record ID: 335505

  • Title: FRANCE: CYCLE RACING - Tour de France riders prepare before the prologue
  • Date: 2nd July 2006
  • Summary: SHOWS : STRASBOURG, EASTERN FRANCE (JULY 1, 2006) (REUTERS) PAN: TEAMS TRUCKS
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7AZQ13DLTI2EI2XDT1QQT08EK
  • Story Text: The battle to succeed seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong began in a subdued atmosphere on Saturday (July 1) after three of the top contenders were withdrawn and the Astana-Wuerth team pulled out.
    In an extraordinary series of events, Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and Spaniard Francisco Mancebo were pulled out by their teams after being implicated in an investigation into a doping scandal in Spain.
    Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov, fifth last year, will also be absent from the seven-km prologue because five of his Astana-Wuerth team mates, appeared on the list of nine Tour competitors involved in the probe.
    The rules state that a team, normally nine riders, must field at least six to start one of the major Tours.
    Francaise des Jeux team manager Marc Madiot said that the rules should be respected by everyone and was in complete accordance with the decision to ban some riders.
    "You have rules and they must be respected by everyone and some riders apparently did not respect them. So, they must be banned from the Tour de France. They will come back the day they respect the rules", he told Reuters Television.
    He then added: "I hope we will have a wonderful race with full of suspense, passion and enthusiasm".
    Former Tour de France winner Bernard Thevenet said that for the sake of the Tour it was necessary to ban some riders and added that the Tour de France will be more exciting than ever.
    Briton David Millar makes his return to the race after a two-year doping ban with big ambitions for the prologue he won in 2000.
    Last year's prologue winner David Zabriskie of America is favourite for the first yellow jersey of the 2006 Tour.
    Although CSC's morale is likely to be affected after Basso's suspension, Zabriskie won the Dauphine Libere's prologue and third-stage time trial last month.
    Zabriskie will face tough competition from compatriots Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie, who finished second, third and fourth respectively behind him in the Dauphine Libere time trial, as well as Britain's Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins.
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