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The Tour de France is usually no stranger to controversy, and this year’s race could be no different in spite of the likely thrill of a two-man battle for the fabled yellow jersey.
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For the second year in a row, the July 5-27 race will start without the man who topped the previous year’s podium and with the inevitable suspicions over who’s playing by the rules, despite the authorities’ never-ending battle to beat the dope cheats.
Before the first of the hundreds of blood and urine samples have been taken or a pedal been turned in anger, the fact that last year’s champion, Alberto Contador, will not be defending his crown will not go unnoticed.
Tour organisers’ decision to ban Contador’s Astana team – following a doping controversy at last year’s race while they were under different management – has been controversial for some.
But despite the Spaniard’s recent victory in the Giro d’Italia, Tour chief Christian Prudhomme has refused to budge.
Contador has accepted the situation, and even picked a possible heir in either Cadel Evans of Australia or Spanish compatriot Alejandro Valverde.
“My favourite for the Tour is Cadel Evans, he’s a solid rider who can really make time differences count in the time trials,” Contador said on Tuesday.
Whether it’s Evans or Valverde topping the podium on July 27, the 95th edition – much like the Giro d’Italia – promises to be no walk in the park.
With no prologue and after a few days of sprints, the hilly profile of stages six and seven give an early appetiser ahead of the first big ascents in the Pyrenees – three days of tough climbing with a day’s rest in between.
The last time the Pyrenees were raced prior to the Alps was in 2006, when American Floyd Landis triumphed in Paris only to be shorn of his victory due to a positive test for testosterone on stage 17.
That meant Valverde’s Caisse d’Epargne teammate Oscar Pereiro, second to Landis in 2006, was handed the victory – but only just as the 2007 race was starting.
The fact that Contador is missing this time is unlikely to dampen the spirits of either Evans, Valverde or a slew of respected outsiders that includes Damiano Cunego, Andy Schleck, Kim Kirchen and Denis Menchov.
Ultimately, it will be the thin air and winding, steep gradients of the Alps that decides who will win the race.
After a first day’s foray into Italy towards the summit of Prato Nevoso via the unclassifed climb over the Col d’Agnel, the next day’s rest day is followed by a stage 16 which includes two unclassified climbs.
In difficulty terms, ‘unclassifed’ means ‘off the charts’. There’s no other way to describe a seemingly never-ending hill climb playing host to a painful race of attrition.
The likely race decider, at least prior to the penultimate stage time trial over 53km, will be stage 17’s 210km ride from Embrun to the legendary Alpe d’Huez.
Already fatigued from their previous days of climbing, going over the Col du Galibier, then the technically difficult Col de la Croix-de-Fer, the big contenders are likely to keep their powder dry for the finale – the 13.3km climb around the 21 hairpin bends of the Alpe d’Huez.
When the course was unveiled last August, Evans was quick to point to its importance, saying: “I’ve yet to have a good stage on Alpe d’Huez! But we’ll see… that’s (stage 17) certainly the mammoth stage.”
After two top ten finishes on his first two participations, Evans missed out on the yellow jersey by just 23secs last year, Contador ultimately securing victory on the penultimate stage time trial.
This year Evans will be boosted by the fact that the race time bonuses – normally awarded to the top stage finishers – have been scrapped altogether: on overall time alone, without time bonuses, the Australian would have been last year’s winner.
The 21 stages for the 2008 edition of the Tour de France, which begins in Brest on July 5 and ends in Paris on July 27:
July 5: stage 1 – Brest – Plumelec, 195 km
July 6: stage 2 – Auray – Saint-Brieuc, 165 km
July 7: stage 3 – Saint-Malo – Nantes, 165 km
July 8: stage 4 – Cholet – Cholet, 29 km (individual time trial)
July 9: stage 5 – Cholet – Chateauroux, 230 km
July 10: stage 6 – Aigurande – Super-Besse, 195 km
July 11: stage 7 – Brioude – Aurillac, 158 km
July 12: stage 8 – Figeac – Toulouse, 174 km
July 13: stage 9 – Toulouse – Bagneres-de-Bigorre, 222 km
July 14: stage 10 – Pau – Hautacam, 154 km
July 15: rest day
July 16: stage 11 – Lannemezan – Foix, 166 km
July 17: stage 12 – Lavelanet – Narbonne, 168 km
July 18: stage 13 – Narbonne – Nimes, 182 km
July 19: stage 14 – Nimes – Digne-les-Bains, 182 km
July 20: stage 15 – Digne-les-Bains – Prato Nevoso (Italy), 216 km
July 21: rest day
July 22: stage 16 – Cuneo – Jausiers, 157 km
July 23: stage 17 – Embrun – L’Alpe-d’Huez, 210 km
July 24: stage 18 – Bourg-d’Oisans – Saint-Etienne, 197 km
July 25: stage 19 – Roanne – Montlucon, 183 km
July 26: stage 20 – Cerilly – Saint-Amand-Montrond, 53 km (individual time trial)
July 27: stage 21 – Etampes – Paris Champs-Elysees, 143 km
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