Tour de France (04-26 July 2009)

Line-ups:

Agritubel

Maxime Bouet, David Le Lay and Christophe Moreau plus six from 10: Freddy Bichot, Sylvain Calzati, Brice Feillu, Romain Feillu, Eduardo Gonzalo, Yann Huguet, Christophe Laurent, Geoffroy Lequatre, Anthony Ravard and Nicolas Vogondy.

*AG2R

José-Luis Arrieta, Cyril Dessel, Vladimir Efimkin, Stéphane Goubert and Lloyd Mondory plus four from six: Hubert Dupont, John Gadret, Sébastien Hinault, Rinaldo Nocentini, Nicolas Roche and Ludovic Turpin.

Astana

Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Andreas Klöden, Levi Leipheimer, Dmitriy Muravyev, Sergio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, Gregory Rast and Haimar Zubeldia.

*Bouygues Telecom

Yukiya Arashiro, William Bonnet, Pierrick Fédrigo, Pierre Rolland, Yuriy Trofimov and Thomas Voeckler plus three to be confirmed.

*Caisse d'Epargne

David Arroyo, Ivan Gutiérrez, Luis Pasamontes, Oscar Pereiro, Luis León Sánchez and Xabier Zandio plus three from four: Rui Costa, Arnaud Coyot, José Joaquin Rojas and Rigoberto Uran.

Cervelo

Inigo Cuesta, Volodymir Gustov, Heinrich Haussler, Thor Hushovd, Andreas Klier, Brett Lancaster, José Angel GomezMarchante, Hayden Roulston and Carlos Sastre.

Cofidis

Stéphane Augé, Samuel Dumoulin, Leonardo Duque, Bingen Fernandez, Christophe Kern, Sébastien Minard, Amaël Moinard, David Moncoutié and Rémi Pauriol.

*Team Columbia - Highroad

To be confirmed

*Euskaltel - Euskadi

Nine from 11: Igor Antón, Mikel Astarloza, Koldo Fernández, Iñigo Landaluze, Egoi Martínez, Iñaki Isasi, Juan Jose Oroz, Alan Pérez, Rubén Pérez, Amets Txurruka and Gorka Verdugo.

Francaise des Jeux

Sandy Casar, Jérôme Coppel, Anthony Geslin, Yauheni Hutarovich, Sébastien Joly, Christophe Le Mével, Benoît Vaugrenard and Jussi Veikkanen. Plus Rémy Di Gregorio or Jérémy Roy.

Garmin - Slipstream

Julian Dean, Tyler Farrar, Ryder Hesjedal, Dan Martin, David Millar, Danny Pate, Christian Vande Velde, Bradley Wiggins and David Zabriskie

Katusha

Alexandre Botcharov, Joan Horrach, Mikhail Ignatiev, Sergei Ivanov, Vladimir Karpets, Danilo Napolitano, Filippo Pozzato, Nikolay Trusov and Stijn Vandenbergh.

*Lampre - NGC

To be confirmed

Liquigas

Daniele Bennati, Vincenzo Nibali, Franco Pellizotti, Roman Kreuziger, Fabio Sabatini, Alksandr Kuschynski, Alessandro Vanotti, Fredrik Willems and Brian Bach Vandborg.

Milram

Gerald Ciolek, Markus Fothen, Johannes Fröhlinger, Linus Gerdemann, Christian Knees, Niki Terpstra, Peter Velits,Fabian Wegmann and Peter Wrolich.

*Quick Step

To be confirmed

Rabobank

Stef Clement, Juan Antonio Flecha, Oscar Friere, Juan Manuel Garate, Robert Gesink, Denis Menchov, Grischa Niermann, Joost Posthuma and Laurens ten Dam.

Saxo Bank

Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Fabian Cancellara, Stuart O'Grady, Gustav Larsson, Andy Schleck, Fränk Schleck, Chris Anker Sørensen, Nicki Sørensen and Jens Voigt.

Silence - Lotto

Cadel Evans, Mickael Delage, Thomas Dekker, Sebastian Lang, Matthew Lloyd, Staf Scheirlinckx, Greg Van Avermaet, Jurgen Van den Broeck and Johan Vansummeren.

*Skil - Shimano

Simon Geschke, Jonathan Hivert, Cyril Lemoine, Piet Rooijakkers, Albert Timmer and Kenny van Hummel plus three to be confirmed.

Spaniard Alberto Contador will be Astana's leader in the Tour de France and will have seven-times champion Lance Armstrong among his helpers, team manager Johan Bruyneel said.

Contador, winner of the Tour in 2007, will also be assisted by American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Kloeden, who both have podium finishes to their names in the world's greatest cycling race.

"After winning the Tour in 2007 and then becoming the fifth cyclist to win all three Grand Tours, it's hard to find a better stage race rider than Alberto," Bruyneel said.

"He has worked very hard, earning the right to represent our team as the leader in July."

The Tour de France starts on July 4 in Monaco with a 15.5-km time trial which appears tailor-made for Contador with a 7.5-km ascent in the first part.

American Armstrong, in his comeback season after three years and an half in retirement, will be one of Contador's eight aides on the French roads.

"I'm very happy with where Lance's form is leading up to the tour", said Bruyneel.

"I think racing the Giro was a very smart decision and really prepared him for July. He is extremely motivated for the Tour de France."

Armstrong, 37, broke his collarbone in March but took part in the Giro, which he finished in 12th place overall, almost 16 minutes behind winner Denis Menchov of Russia.

Russia's Tour of Italy champion , seen here in March 2009, will lead the Rabobank team in next month's Tour de France, the Dutch based team's manager said.
The Caisse d'Epargne cycling team named 10 cyclists from which they must select nine for the Tour de France, which runs from July 4-26.

Six of them, the Spaniards David Arroyo, Ivan Gutierrez, Luis Pasamontes, Luis Leon Sanchez, Xabier Zandio and 2006 champion Oscar Pereiro (pictured) - awarded victory after American Floyd Landis was disqualified for failing a drugs test - are assured of their places on the start line in Monaco.

The three final places are being contested by Portugal's Rui Costa, Frenchman Arnaud Coyot, Spain's Jose Joaquin Rojas and the Colombian Rigoberto Uran.

The final squad for the Tour de France will be named after the various national championships taking place on Sunday.

Spain's Alejandro Valverde is banned from racing in Italy, which boasts a stage in this year's Tour on July 21, and has not been selected.

Christian Vande Velde has recovered from injuries suffered in a fall during the Giro d'Italia and will lead the Garmin team in the Tour de France.

The 33-year-old, who ended last year's Tour in fifth place but was promoted to fourth on the disqualification of Bernhard Kohl for failing a doping test, is one of four American riders in the team.

It also includes the British pair - Olympic pursuit three-times gold medallist Bradley Wiggins and David Millar - for the Tour which starts on July 4 in Monaco.

Another of the US racers is time-trial specialist and 2005 yellow jersey wearer David Zabriskie.

Garmin have also included two up-and-coming riders - American sprinter Tyler Farrar and Irish specialist climber Dan Martin.

Luxembourg brothers Frank and Andy Schleck will lead the Saxo Bank team at the Tour de France.

Frank was sixth overall last year and 10th in 2006 when he won the queen stage to Alpe d'Huez.

His younger brother Andy claimed the white jersey as best young rider last year, finishing 12th overall.

A strong Saxo Bank squad also includes Tour of Switzerland winner Fabian Cancellara, who will start the prologue as favourite, and multiple past stage winners Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt.

Olympic time trial silver medallist Gustav Larsson and Kurt-Asle Arvesen, the winner of the stage to Foix last year, are joined by Nicki Sorensen and Chris Anker Sorensen.

** News taken from eurosport.yahoo.bom

1 comment:

sah_kul said...

I would like to see Contador winning again...I hate TT and no wheel sucker (boring) please...

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