From the Netherlands

In a recent Radio Netherlands' news report, they said...

"The 95th edition of the Tour de France starts in Brest later this afternoon. For the first time since 1967 there is no prologue. The opening stage is a 197.5 kilometre race from Brest to Plumelec. The sprinters are expected to make a good showing as the first stage is fairly flat.

A number of cyclists including Denmark's Michael Rasmussen and last year's winner Alberto Contador, have been excluded from this year's tour due to drugs charges. This year's favourites are Australia's Cadel Evans, Spain's Alejandro Valverde and Russia's Denis Menchov."

I disagree about the way the drug charges comment was presented. Contador and his team are not in the race because of drug use (alleged) by some of his TEAM's riders. Contador was clean, otherwise the UCI et al would be hounding him like they did Floyd Landis.

Further, the Tour seems not to touch another country this year. I'm saying this without taking a closer look at the map, but it seems that everything stays within France for the 95th Tour de France.

Another great place for your updates

Bicycling Magazine is working in conjunction with the Boulder Report to give live blog updates throughout the race.

From my cursory look, this seems like one of the few sources for info that I'll be tapping as I follow the tour from thousands of miles away.

Oh, the last day

Here's the TV schedule on Versus for the final stage of the 2008 Tour de France.

Versus TV Listings

Stuck in the United States and need your cycling fix? I'll be blogging regularly, but there's also TV to watch. Versus has the entire Tour de France (that's a total lie - it's nothing like the great coverage from Eurosport) on TV again this year.

Here are a bunch of screen shots of their scheduling line-up.

Race Map

Just a screen shot of the map. It's a very similar route to 2004 and hits many of the same towns. This includes Alpe d'Huez, Nimes and more. The only thing missing is a 21st team and Lance Armstrong.

Oh, and I was in France just prior to the 2004 Tour.

Tour Riders for 2008

Here are the riders in this year's Tour de France. It begins today, by the way.

The list starts with team name and then goes by bib number. The rider's home country is the abbreviation at the end of his name. Sorry for the jumble. It was cut and pasted here.

There are 180 riders in this year's Tour de France - one fewer team than in most years.

SILENCE - LOTTO
001 EVANS, Cadel AUS
002 AERTS, Mario BEL
003 BRANDT, Christophe BEL
004 CIONI, Dario ITA
005 HOSTE, Leif BEL
006 MC EWEN, Robbie AUS
007 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav UKR
008 VAN SUMMEREN, Johan BEL
009 VANSEVENANT, Wim BEL
QUICK STEP
091 DEVOLDER, Stijn BEL
092 BARREDO, Carlos ESP
093 CARRARA, Matteo ITA
094 DE JONGH, Steven NED
095 FACCI, Mauro ITA
096 ROSSELER, Sébastien BEL
097 STEEGMANS, Gert BEL
098 TOSATTO, Matteo ITA
099 VAN DE WALLE, Jurgen BEL
AG2R-LA MONDIALE
101 DESSEL, Cyril FRA
102 ARRIETA, Jose Luis ESP
103 DUPONT, Hubert FRA
104 EFIMKIN, Vladimir RUS
105 ELMIGER, Martin SUI
106 GADRET, John FRA
107 GOUBERT, Stephane FRA
108 RIBLON, Christophe FRA
109 VALJAVEC, Tadej SLO
GEROLSTEINER
111 SCHUMACHER, Stefan GER
112 FÖRSTER, Robert GER
113 FOTHEN, Markus GER
114 HAUSSLER, Heinrich GER
115 KOHL, Bernhard AUT
116 KRAUSS, Sven GER
117 LANG, Sebastian GER
118 SCHOLZ, Ronny GER
119 WEGMANN, Fabian GER
AGRITUBEL
121 MOREAU, Christophe FRA
122 BICHOT, Freddy FRA
123 CASPER, Jimmy FRA
124 FEILLU, Romain FRA
125 GONZALO RAMIREZ, Eduardo ESP
126 JALABERT, Nicolas FRA
127 LELAY, David FRA
128 LEQUATRE, Geoffroy FRA
129 VOGONDY, Nicolas FRA
RABOBANK
131 MENCHOV, Denis RUS
132 FLECHA, Juan Antonio ESP
133 FREIRE, Oscar ESP
134 LANGEVELD, Sebastian NED
135 MOERENHOUT, Koos NED
136 POSTHUMA, Joost NED
137 TANKINK, Bram NED
138 TEN DAM, Laurens NED
139 WEENING, Pieter NED
BOUYGUES TELECOM
141 FEDRIGO, Pierrick FRA
142 CLEMENT, Stef NED
143 FLORENCIO, Xavier ESP
144 LEFEVRE, Laurent FRA
145 PINEAU, Jérôme FRA
146 SPRICK, Matthieu FRA
147 TROFIMOV, Yury RUS
148 TSCHOPP, Johann SUI
149 VOECKLER, Thomas FRA
TEAM MILRAM
151 ZABEL, Erik GER
152 GRABSCH, Ralf GER
153 KNEES, Christian GER
154 LANCASTER, Brett Daniel AUS
155 MÜLLER, Martin GER
156 SCHRÖDER, Björn GER
157 TERPSTRA, Niki NED
158 VELITS, Peter SVK
159 VELO, Marco ITA
FRANCAISE DES JEUX
161 CASAR, Sandy FRA
162 CHAVANEL, Sébastien FRA
163 DI GREGORIO, Rémy FRA
164 GERARD, Arnaud FRA
165 GILBERT, Philippe BEL
166 JEGOU, Lilian FRA
167 LE BOULANGER, Yoann FRA
168 ROY, Jérémy FRA
169 VAUGRENARD, Benoît FRA
SAUNIER DUVAL - SCOTT
171 RICCO, Riccardo ITA
172 BERTOGLIATI, Rubens SUI
173 COBO ACEBO, Juan Jose ESP
174 DE LA FUENTE, David ESP
175 DEL NERO, Jesus ESP
176 GOMEZ, Angel ESP
177 JUFRE POU, Josep ESP
178 PASSERON, Aurélien FRA
179 PIEPOLI, Leonardo ITA
COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE
181 CHAVANEL, Sylvain FRA
182 AUGE, Stéphane FRA
183 BRARD, Florent FRA
184 DUCLOS-LASSALLE, Hervé FRA
185 DUMOULIN, Samuel FRA
186 DUQUE, Leonardo COL
187 MOINARD, Amaël FRA
188 MONCOUTIE, David FRA
189 MONFORT, Maxime BEL
TEAM CSC SAXO BANK
011 SASTRE, Carlos ESP
012 ARVESEN, Kurt-Asle NOR
013 CANCELLARA, Fabian SUI
014 GUSTOV, Volodymir UKR
015 O’GRADY, Stuart AUS
016 SCHLECK, Andy LUX
017 SCHLECK, Frank LUX
018 SORENSEN, Nicki DEN
019 VOIGT, Jens GER
GARMIN CHIPOTLE
191 VANDEVELDE, Christian USA
192 BACKSTEDT, Magnus SWE
193 DEAN, Julian NZL
194 FRISCHKORN, William USA
195 HESJEDAL, Ryder CAN
196 LOWE, Trent AUS
197 MAASKANT, Martijn NED
198 MILLAR, David GBR
199 PATE, Danny USA
EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
021 ZUBELDIA, Haimar ESP
022 ASTARLOZA, Mikel ESP
023 ISASI, Inaki ESP
024 MARTINEZ, Egoi ESP
025 OROZ, Juan José ESP
026 PEREZ, Ruben ESP
027 SANCHEZ, Samuel ESP
028 TXURRUKA, Amets ESP
029 VERDUGO, Gorka ESP
CAISSE D’EPARGNE
031 VALVERDE, Alejandro ESP
032 ARROYO, David ESP
033 COYOT, Arnaud FRA
034 GARCIA ACOSTA, Vicente ESP
035 GUTIERREZ, José Ivan ESP
036 LOPEZ GARCIA, David ESP
037 PEREIRO SIO, Oscar ESP
038 PORTAL, Nicolas FRA
039 SANCHEZ, Luis-Leon ESP
TEAM COLUMBIA
041 KIRCHEN, Kim LUX
042 BURGHARDT, Marcus GER
043 CAVENDISH, Mark GBR
044 CIOLEK, Gerald GER
045 EISEL, Bernhard AUT
046 HANSEN, Adam AUS
047 HINCAPIE, George USA
048 LÖVKVIST, Thomas SWE
049 SIUTSOU, Konstantsin BLR
BARLOWORLD
051 SOLER HERNANDEZ, Juan Mauricio COL
052 AUGUSTYN, John-Lee RSA
053 CARDENAS, Félix COL
054 CHEULA, Gianpaolo ITA
055 COOKE, Baden AUS
056 DUENAS NEVADO, Moises ESP
057 FROOME, Christopher KEN
058 HUNTER, Robert RSA
059 LONGO BORGHINI, Paolo ITA
LIQUIGAS
061 POZZATO, Filippo ITA
062 BELTRAN, Manuel ESP
063 CHICCHI, Francesco ITA
064 FISCHER, Murilo Antoniobil BRA
065 KREUZIGER, Roman CZE
066 KUSCHYNSKI, Aleksandr BLR
067 NIBALI, Vincenzo ITA
068 QUINZIATO, Manuel ITA
069 WILLEMS, Frederik BEL
LAMPRE
071 CUNEGO, Damiano ITA
072 BALLAN, Alessandro ITA
073 BONO, Matteo ITA
074 BRUSEGHIN, Marzio ITA
075 MARZANO, Marco ITA
076 MORI, Massimiliano ITA
077 RIGHI, Daniele ITA
078 SZMYD, Sylvester POL
079 TIRALONGO, Paolo ITA
CREDIT AGRICOLE
081 HUSHOVD, Thor NOR
082 BONNET, William FRA
083 BOTCHAROV, Alexandre RUS
084 ENGOULVENT, Jimmy FRA
085 FOFONOV, Dmitriy KAZ
086 GERRANS, Simon AUS
087 LE MEVEL, Christophe FRA
088 PAURIOL, Rémi FRA
089 RENSHAW, Mark AUS

Landis Appeal Fails

In an article a friend of mine sent me, I found out this morning that Floyd Landis' bid to reclaim/retain his 2006 TDF victory has failed.

It was Floyd's last gasp at being recognized as the winner of the Tour, so he's done.

On the upside, the process helped to tarnish the current doping punishment process and cast serious doubt on some of the organizations that have helped ruin some lives and dent this great sport.

Here's the link to that Sports Illustrated story.

More to come...

Cycling tragedy

Car and drunk driver killed a cyclist during a race near the Mexican border.



Here's a screenshot of the story and the link below the photo. Totally blows.

Here's the whole story.

Hotels near the Tour de France

Hus left this comment on my TDF07 blog...

New already: for the Tour de France 2008 I developed a Google Map in terrain view with all the stages of the Tour de France 2008. See:
http://www.hotels-in-france.nl/index.php/Le-Tour-2008.html

It gives hotel locations in towns that lie along the 2008 Tour de France route.

Thanks Hus!

Giro complete...here comes the TDF!

With Alberto Contador the 2008 winner of the Giro D'Italia, the next major race on the docket is the Dauphiné Libéré beginning next week in Avignon, France.

And, because we've just cracked the first day of June, we've got a mere month before we find out if Astana will be allowed in the Tour de France in July.

According to reports - READ THE ENTIRE STORY...

Organisers of the Tour de France, run by the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) said earlier this year that the doping scandals which plagued Astana at last year's French race had left them with little choice despite the team undergoing a mass clear-out.

The team's former leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, was fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion during last year's Tour de France.

Weeks after the Vinokourov controversy his fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin also tested positive for blood doping. Other teams riders, including Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni, were also involved in doping affairs.

Unlike the French, the Italians relented and finally allowed Astana in.

But I'm worried that this year's Tour will still start with one less team than in previous years and will lack the excitement that Contador, Levi Leipheimer and other Astana riders might have offered.

Stay tuned here while I ramp up the recaps and start to provide my predictions for the 2008 Tour de France.

Keep riding!