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Tour Doping Scandals Give New Set Of Riders A Chance

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

BREST, France - BREST, France - Here is what victory will look like for Tour de France organizers: The riders reach the finish line in three weeks with no doping scandals.

Cycling's most prestigious race begins today, trying to shake its history of drugs and cheating. The turmoil has left this year's race without many of the sport's biggest names. The loss of glamour, however, gives a new crop of riders a chance to step forward.

Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Sastre, Denis Menchov and Damiano Cunego are among the most likely to prevail in the 2,175-mile trek.

"I'd rate myself as a pretty good chance to win," said Evans, who has improved from eighth place in 2005 to fourth the next year and runner-up in 2007.

The race 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. Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.

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 that led to the ouster of his entire Astana team, and Astana rider Levi Leipheimer.

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

TODAY'S FIRST STAGE

The first Tour since 1967 to start without a prologue takes the 180-rider pack on a 122.7-mile ride through the verdant flats of Brittany from Brest to Plumelec.

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