Tour de France 2025

Two Tour de France rookies on opposite ends of their careers hogged the spotlight Friday in the Pyrénées. While the GC favorites marked each other up the Tour’s first of three summit finishes, Brice Feillu and Rinaldo Nocentini took full advantage of the opportunity. Feillu, 23, best-known as the younger brother of sprinter Romain Feillu, attacked out of a nine-man breakaway to win France’s second stage in three days while Nocentini, 31, an Italian roulleur familiar to American fans for his stage victory during this year’s Tour of California, snagged the yellow jersey.

It usually takes a highly-publicized doping scandal to bring Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme to the brink of tears. But on Friday it was 24-year-old debutant Brice Feillu, giving the hosts their second stage victory of the race, who brought the emotions flooding out after an impressive ride to victory on the first day in the mountains. Feillu, a specialist climber who rides for Agritubel with his brother Romain, took his chance by attacking his small group of breakaway companions inside the final 6km of the 10.1km climb to Arcalis.

A soaked but otherwise happy Cadel Evans indicated he is ready to meet his Tour de France rivals head on when the race heads for its first summit finish in the Pyrenees on Friday. However Australia's two-time runner-up faces a bigger test than the slippery roads which led the peloton from Girona to Barcelona on Thursday, on which compatriot Michael Rogers almost saw his Tour end prematurely. Evans had joined the frontrunners in pursuit of Garmin-Slipstream's David Millar, who was caught inside two kilometers, having attacked solo a three-man breakaway with 29km to race.

Stage 5 of the Tour de France was another seaside route along the French coast with brutal crosswinds. However, unlike stage 3, Team Saxo Bank and Chris Anker Sorensen were prepared and present at the front of the race when it counted. The final 50 miles of the stage were raced at full throttle and Chris set new personal-best Tour de France power records to prove it. 

Germany's Tony Martin is hoping toemulate compatriot Jan Ullrich by wearing the Tour de France's white jersey all the way to Paris as he prepares to defend it through the Pyrenees this weekend. The 24-year-old Columbia rider has held the prize for the best placed U25 rider since the end of Monday's third stage, and finished Thursday's 181.5km race into Barcelona with the shirt still on his back. Martin, whose parents fled Hungary in 1989 after the fall of the Iron Curtain and settled in the former East German city of Cottbus, has spent the

And it all comes down to Arcalis. After months of speculation, mind-games and maneuvering, the much-anticipated showdown between Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador will finally unfold on the beyond-category steeps of the Arcalis summit in the principality of Andorra. Or will it? It’s all but impossible to read the tea leaves on what will happen in Friday’s 224km seventh stage.

There have been very few “down” moments in this 96th Tour de France. All of the first six stages have thrown different challenges at the 180 starters, and it’s a testament to today’s breed of pro cyclists that only three of them have so far dropped out — and all due to crashes.

It should come as a surprise to no one that Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar went out on the attack on Thursday’s stage from Girona to Barcelona.

Photographer Casey Gibson was there when the Tour de France left Girona and at the finish when Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd takes a big win in Barcelona, capital city of Spain's Catalonia region.

Thor Hushovd’s sprint victory up Montjuic gave a huge boost to the start-up Cervélo TestTeam just as the continental squad prepares to lead defending champion Carlos Sastre into the Pyrénées starting with Friday’s stage to Arcalis. The sprinting Viking out-kicked three-time world champion Oscar Freire to claim his seventh career Tour stage win and deliver the Canadian-sponsored continental team a prestigious victory in its first-ever Tour de France.

Rabobank's Denis Menchov saw his yellow jersey hopes all but evaporate in the rain of Barcelona where he ended the sixth stage of the Tour de France nearly five minutes in arrears. Menchov, the recent Giro d'Italia champion who began this year's Tour as a contender, is now 4:54 behind race leader Fabian Cancellara after Thursday's 181.5km crash-marred ride to Barcelona. Cancellara's grip on the yellow jersey could loosen on Friday's seventh stage which heads up to Andorra in the Pyrenees, where Lance Armstrong, only 0.22secs behind in second place, could be the man to replace him.

Australian Michael Rogers was among the big name riders who crashed on the rain-hit sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday. Rogers, riding for the Columbia team, appeared to take down Cervelo sprinter Heinrich Haussler and American David Zabriskie of Garmin as the peloton negotiated a roundabout. The Australian, who finished ninth overall in 2006 but had to abandon after a serious crash on the eighth stage in 2007, was later taken to hospital for X-rays complaining of a sore elbow.

Tour stages tend to follow a pretty established routine at the start. Riders arrive in team busses, which park in a fenced-off paddock with direct access to the start line. Bikes, both those that will be used in the race and spares, arrive on the roof racks of team cars. There are usually four or five team vehicles in total. The mechanics who ride in the team cars with spare wheels are on hand at the start, but the trucks with most of the spare parts, wheels, and shop supplies drive directly to the team hotel at the stage finish.

Australian Michael Rogers will head into the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday fully expecting the battle for the yellow jersey to soon move up a gear. But while Columbia's second-in-command has for now played down his own chances of challenging for the yellow jersey, he does not expect Lance Armstrong's Astana team to try and distance their main rivals just yet. "Of course they're in an ideal position right now. They have cards to play but I don't think they'll play them until the later half of the second week," Rogers told AFP on Wednesday.

Mark Cavendish's domination of the Tour de France bunch sprints is likely set to come to an end, temporarily at least, on the race's sixth stage which ends at Barcelona's Olympic stadium on Thursday. A day before the first summit finish of the race at Arcalis in Andorra, the Tour heads over more challenging undulating terrain, with an uphill finish likely tempting the peloton's 'punchers.'

Reigning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre has put a positive spin on Cervelo's chances of defending his yellow jersey, claiming they would now employ a "happy, relaxed" approach. Sastre was one of several Tour contenders who on Tuesday's team time trial lost time to the Astana team of Lance Armstrong, who is now second overall just 0.22secs behind race leader Fabian Cancellara. Sastre's team finished a respectable eighth in the fourth stage race against the clock and, compared to fellow challengers Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov, Sastre's Cervelo team managed to limit their losses.

Cadel Evans admitted Wednesday he is still getting used to being so far behind in the race for the Tour de France yellow jersey before the race's crucia mountains stages have even started. Australia's two-time runner-up stayed out of trouble on Wednesday's tricky and wind-hit stage from Cap d'Agde to Perpignan, in which Silence teammate Matthew Lloyd escaped, unhurt, from a spill mid-race. Evans now goes into Thursday's sixth stage from Gerona to Barecelona in Spain 2:59 down on race leader Fabian Cancellara and second-placed Lance Armstrong.

Fabian Cancellara’s yellow jersey might be hanging by a thread, but it’s going to take more than a snip of scissors to take it away from him. Despite leading Lance Armstrong by just 0.22 seconds, Cancellara says that margin will be plenty to fend off the seven-time champion on the hilltop finish atop Montjuic overlooking Barcelona in Thursday’s stage 6.

Sharp eyes might have noticed unfamiliar helmets on the heads of certain riders in Tuesday’s team time trial. At the start line, we spotted riders from the Astana and Garmin teams with new Giro-branded helmets. The Saxo Bank team, which is sponsored by Bell, also had new helmets, including a yellow one for Fabian Cancellara to match his leader’s jersey. Reportedly, other teams sponsored by Giro (including Rabobank and Caisse d’Epargne) are also wearing this new helmet in time trials.

Julian Dean says it’s only a matter of time before Tyler Farrar wins a stage at the Tour de France. The New Zealand veteran sprinter said Farrar might just be the man who gets past dominant sprinter Mark Cavendish. “I think he can win a stage at the Tour,” Dean said after Wednesday’s stage. “It won’t be easy. We just started working together at the Giro, but if we get our timing right, we can win.”

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Covering a 200km stage across the wind-blown reaches of southern France means that some days you have to get lucky to get the right shot. Photographer Casey Gibson seemed to have a good day today.

Columba-HTC's Mark Cavendish tightened his grip on the Tour de France green jersey on Wednesday despite losing out on the chance to claim a third stage victory on this year's race. Cavendish, who stylishly won stages 2 and 3 from bunch sprints to take his tally on the race to six in three participations, was among those who fell victim to a vicious headwind as the peloton chased down an earlier breakaway.

Just a day after publicly apologizing for comments he made about the 2008 Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong told Carlos Sastre face-to-face he was sorry. On Wednesday, as Sastre rolled through the peloton during the neutral start congratulating members of the Astana team on their team time trial victory, Armstrong saddled up alongside. According to Sastre, the seven-time Tour champ told him he was sorry that he said the 2008 Tour was “a joke.”

The teams of Tour de France contenders Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov suffered further setbacks during the race's fifth stage on Wednesday. On the descent of the Cote de Treilles as the peloton upped the pace in chase of a six-man breakaway, 23-year-old Dutchman Robert Gesink crashed and picked up injuries to his wrist and left leg. He was later diagnosed with a fractured wrist and pulled out of the race by his Rabobank team, who have been left reeling with the relative demise of their yellow jersey contender Menchov.

Wow, what an exciting day of racing. There are simply no easy days in the Tour de France. On paper, Monday's stage 3 appeared to be a fairly routine flat stage for the sprinters, but it ended up being a detrimental day for some of the Tour’s overall favorites.

Lance Armstrong has an eighth Tour de France crown within his sights thanks to Astana’s domination in Tuesday’s team time trial, but he admitted that it won’t be easy. After barnstorming to seven straight Tour victories before retiring in 2005, Armstrong acknowledged Tuesday that trying to win for an unprecedented eighth time is more difficult than he expected.I was disrespectful, to Carlos Sastre, to Christian Vande Velde.

Until the very final meter of Tuesday’s 39km team time trial in Montpellier it looked as though Lance Armstrong was going to grab the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara. That he didn’t take it may have disappointed those Armstrong fans looking for a Hollywood ending to a day that had already delivered so much. But those who support the Texan should be thrilled that his Astana team won the stage — four years after Armstrong last led a Tour team to a TTT victory — before even thinking about his not taking the jersey.

Fabian Cancellara held on to the yellow jersey by the slimmest of margins on Tuesday. Photographer Casey B. Gibson was there to capture the moment ... and a few more.

Alberto Contador was all smiles at the finish line in Montpellier after Astana’s dramatic team time trial win. And why not? The 2007 Tour champ had plenty of reason to be happy. The team not only won the stage, but Contador profits from the major time gaps opened up to rivals even before the race turns into the Pyrénées. “I have every reason to be happy. We took some time on our rivals, riders like Evans, Sastre, Menchov and the Schleck brothers,” Contador said. “Things are looking pretty good for us on the GC.”

For a working journalist, the Tour de France isn't exactly a day at the beach, even when it finishes at one. But when race security supplies a few extra obstacles, our man Casey B. Gibson manages to clear them with ease, two-ton camera bag and all. Here's what he shot.

Bob Stapleton was already in a good mood Monday morning before the start of the third stage of the 2009 Tour de France at Marseille’s old harbor. The president of Columbia-HTC was enjoying the warm afterglow of Mark Cavendish’s explosive victory in stage 2 and Andre Greipel’s win at the Tour of Austria.

Fabian Cancellara saved his yellow jersey Monday by slipping into the stage-breaking attack powered by the entire Columbia-HTC team. The Saxo Bank rider was the only one from his favored team to be in the decisive, 28-man breakaway featuring Lance Armstrong (Astana) but not second-place rider Alberto Contador. Cancellara came across the line sixth and actually widened his lead, from 19 seconds over Contador to 33 seconds over Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC), with Armstrong climbing to third at 40 seconds back.

George Hincapie should know. He called Monday’s amazing collective performance by his Columbia-HTC team as the greatest he’d been associated with. And that’s saying something when you consider that the American veteran was on all seven of Lance Armstrong’s winning Tour de France campaigns.

Naysayers will be quick to point out that Lance Armstrong’s presence in and Alberto Contador’s absence from Monday’s decisive 28-man breakaway is all the proof they need that the Texan is riding against the Spaniard in the 2009 Tour de France. Calmer heads might suggest that experience ruled the day when Armstrong followed Columbia-HTC into the biting crosswinds across France’s Camargue and bounced from 10th to third overall, now 40 seconds behind overnight leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank). Armstrong insists he was just riding smart.

Lance Armstrong's Astana team was fined on Monday after failing to sign on within the specified time at the start of the third stage of the Tour de France. Heavy traffic in Marseille city centre meant Astana broke the organizers' rule that teams must register for the stage at least 20 minutes before the start of the race. The Kazakhstan-backed cycling team have been fined 65 euros for the infringement. "How typical that this team were late. It is disrespectful to the public who came here just to see Armstrong," said race director Jean-Francois Pescheux.

Katusha's Danilo Napolitano hit back Monday at allegations that his race tactics prevented team Cervelo from pulling off a sprint coup on the second stage of the Tour de France. Cervelo's Brett Lancaster, the main lead-out man for the team's Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd, was left frustrated and angry Sunday with what he called the "amateur' racing of Katusha sprinter Napolitano. "We got Thor right up there and then typical Napolitano just smashing people like he's in an amateur bloody under-19 race. It's just disgraceful," Lancaster told AFP. "The guy needs to pull his head in."

Quick Step rider Jurgen van de Walle on Monday became the first cyclist to withdraw from the 2009 Tour de France after suffering a broken collarbone on the second stage. The 32-year-old was involved in a crash just under two kilometers from the finish of Sunday's second, 187km-long stage between Monaco and Brignoles which left him with the broken collarbone and a damaged lung. The Belgian finished the stage, but was taken straight to hospital in Marseille where he was being kept under observation.

Belgium's Tom Boonen said Sunday he was more concerned about staying on his bike than sprinting for victory after a crash just before the finish of the second stage of the Tour de France. A right-hand bend just under 2km before the end of the 187km stage between Monaco and Brignoles caused confusion in the peloton, causing some riders to crash and forcing the Quick Step sprinter to ride around the pileup.

Tyler Farrar stuck another feather in his sprint cap on Sunday by finishing an impressive second on his first real Tour de France debut. The Tour de France clicked into action on Saturday when Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara grabbed the race's yellow jersey when he won the opening stage time trial in Monaco. But for sprinters like Farrar, who as an American is a rare breed in his craft, Sunday's hot and sweaty 187 km ride from Monaco to here was the real start of the three-week epic.

The road back to his second Tour de France was different for Ryder Hesjedal this year. While most of his Tour-bound teammates followed the successful blueprint from 2008 and raced the Giro d’Italia in May, Garmin-Slipstream brass put the brakes on the tall Canadian and told him to rest instead of race.

Watching Mark Cavendish totally dominate the other sprinters at Sunday’s stage 2 of the 96th Tour de France set me thinking about the first time I saw him race. It was in early 2005 at the world track championships in Los Angeles, when he was only 19.

U.S.-based photographer Casey B. Gibson has an eye for more than just bike race action. He specializes in capturing the roadside characters and scenes that make the Tour de France special. He will be covering every day of the 2009 Tour de France. Today we present a gallery of his best stage 2 shots. Click here to see his stage 1 gallery.

Temperatures surged into the high 90s on Sunday as searing summer heat took a grip on the peloton at the Tour de France. Riders sprinted for the line into Brignole with extra intensity Sunday because it seemed like they just wanted a cold drink and some shade. “It was brutal heat out there. I couldn’t get enough drinks down,” said Cervélo’s Heinrich Haussler. “I was getting goose bumps with so much heat. I was almost feeling cold.”

Astana’s Lance Armstrong stayed out of trouble on Sunday’s sweltering Stage 2, finishing in 80th place in the same time as stage winner Mark Cavendish. "Days like today are incredibly hot and hard for everyone," said Armstrong. "I just wanted to avoid trouble and get into the rhythm of the race, because yesterday's time trial wasn't really a normal stage. "We had an important day here and then we are on our way to the Pyrenees."

Britain's Mark Cavendish is likely to find out the real strength in depth of his rivals on the Tour de France in the race's third stage from Marseille to La Grande Motte on Monday. The key to Cavendish's four stage wins from the bunch sprints last year, apart from his unstoppable top end speed, was the disciplined riding of his Columbia team who helped crank up the speed before unleasing him a few hundred meters from the line. On Monday Cavendish will find out if sprint rivals Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen and Tyler Farrar, among others, have learned anything from those performances

Lance Armstrong is keeping his Astana team's yellow jersey rivals guessing by refusing to officially endorse Spanish ace Alberto Contador as their definitive team leader. "We're trying to keep it open a little bit," said Armstrong when asked if the results of Saturday's opening stage time trial had helped decide whether he or Contador was now the team's definitive leader. Contador, the 2007 champion, stamped his yellow jersey credentials on the race by finishing second in the opening stage time trial at 18secs behind Fabian Cancellara.

The first three Tours de France in the post-Armstrong era have been all won by riders from Spain, but only one hit the jackpot Saturday in the Monaco time trial sweepstakes that opened the 2009 edition. Contador: on a mission With a superb second-place ride, Alberto Contador (Astana) revealed he could be the man to continue Spain’s three-year running Tour winning streak.

Australian Cadel Evans was given cause for both optimism and alarm after the opening stage of the Tour de France Saturday that left some of his potential yellow jersey rivals in the race's driving seat. Evans finished fifth in a technically-demanding time trial won by Swiss Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who rides with Stuart O'Grady at the Saxo Bank team. But arguably the most notable result was enjoyed by the Astana team of 2007 champion Alberto Contador and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. The Kazakh-backed outfit placed four riders in the top ten.

Britain's David Millar has a reputation for being laid-back, but the Garmin team rider is hoping his new, relaxed attitude on the bike transforms to big results on this year's Tour de France. Millar, 32, has had a tumultuous career which kicked off nearly a decade ago with a famous prologue win ahead of Lance Armstrong in 2000 - and which has really only got back on the rails following a two-year ban for doping.

Fabian Cancellara knew if he could stay close to the climbers on the first half of the course in Saturday’s individual time trial to open the 2009 Tour de France, the yellow jersey was his. Cancellara’s plan worked like a charm, staying within six seconds of 2007 Tour champion Alberto Contador (Astana) at the Cat. 4 Cote de Beausoleil with 8km to go before turning on the afterburners in the final half to claim the double prize of stage win and yellow jersey by 18 seconds.

No one really knew what to expect when Lance Armstrong sped down the starting ramp alongside the harbor in Monte Carlo Saturday afternoon to begin his first Tour de France in four years. He wasn’t expecting to win Saturday’s 15.5km time trial, and that attitude was reflected in his steady start and solid finish to end the day in 10th place.

Defending champion Carlos Sastre wanted to wear the yellow jersey to start the 2009 Tour de France in Saturday’s time trial, but race officials told him he couldn’t. Officials from Cervélo TestTeam approached Tour officials Friday evening about allowing Sastre to wear the maillot jaune, but race officials said the tradition of the previous year’s winner starting the next year’s race was one for the history books.

Astana manager Johan Bruyneel returned to the world's biggest bike race in fine form after seeing his team dominate the top-ten on the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday. While Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara claimed the stage and the first yellow jersey of the race Astana were left well within sight of the race lead after placing four riders among the top ten after the 15.5km time trial. Alberto Contador, the 2007 champion and this year's overall favorite, finished second, 18 seconds adrift of Saxo Bank's reigning Olympic champion.

The opening shots in the battle for the 2009 Tour de France yellow jersey were fired in Monaco Saturday and Casey Gibson was there to record the action.

Everyone, including riders, spectators, the media, and the industry, knows that all eyes are on the Tour de France come July. If ever there’s a time to do something special, be it a new product or a new paint job, now is the time.

Predicting the outcome of the Tour de France is a hazardous undertaking, but it’s one that the editors of L’Équipe — the French sports newspaper that invented the Tour and is still part of its organizational team — always take a stab at. They generally get it right, but not always. After Jan Ullrich won the Tour in 1997, L’Équipe predicted that he would become the first man to win the race six times. He didn’t win it again.

In recent years many time trial bikes have sprouted nose cones and structural fairings to improve aerodynamic, but more recently the UCI has signaled that it intends to crack down on designs that infringe on its '3:1' rule, which says frame and components can't be more than three times wider than they are tall; a 1-centimeter-tall handlebar, for example, can't be more than 3 centimeters wide from front to back. The enforcement doesn't necessarily limit innovation. Trek Bicycle, for example, was already looking beyond nose cones and fairings.

199. Kenny Robert Van Hummel (NED) Skil-Shimano, departs at 4:00:00 p.m. 189. Peter Wrolich (AUT) Team Milram, departs at 4:01:00 p.m. 174. Brice Feillu (FRA) Agritubel, departs at 4:02:00 p.m. 166. Danilo Napolitano (ITA) Team Katusha, departs at 4:03:00 p.m. 154. Steven De Jongh (NED) Quick Step, departs at 4:04:00 p.m. 145. Saïd Haddou (FRA) Bbox Bouygues Telecom, departs at 4:05:00 p.m. 134. Angelo Furlan (ITA) Lampre - N.G.C, departs at 4:06:00 p.m.

British sprinter Mark Cavendish said Friday his Tour de France objective is solely to reach Paris with any thoughts of winning the green jersey far from his mind when the race begins here on Saturday. The 24-year-old exploded onto the scene last year by winning a remarkable four stages on only his second Tour but pulled out early to race at the Beijing Olympics. That ended any hopes he might have had of battling for the green jersey, which usually rewards the most consistent rider in the points competition.

Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu is aiming to become the first cyclist from the land of the rising sun to reach Paris and finish the race which starts on Saturday. The 26-year-old former national road race champion, who turned professional with Discovery Channel in 2005, will be competing for Skil-Shimano when the first stage begins with a time trial around the tiny Principality. And, along with Bbox Bouygues Telecom's Yukiya Arashiro, Beppu wants to be the first rider from Japan to reach Paris and finish all 21 stages.

Quick Step team officials have said that Tom Boonen, admitted to the Tour de France only a day before its scheduled start in Monaco, may have difficulty even making the time cut in the opening time trial on Saturday. "Tom does not feel very well today,” said general manager Patrick Lefevere. “He is feeling weak, due to abdominal pain and diarrhea. "Frankly, I think it’s his body’s reaction to all of the stress he’s gone through these few weeks."

The pressure is on Alberto Contador at the 96th Tour de France. By general consensus, Team Astana’s 26-year-old Spanish star is the clear favorite to wear the yellow jersey into Paris in three weeks’ time — but the 2007 winner could lose the chance of taking the Tour for a second time as early as Sunday’s opening stage: a demanding 15.5km time trial. Contador has developed into a fine time trialist, and the opening climb of the tricky Monaco course plays to his physical strengths. But whether he will have the mental fortitude to win is another story.

It’s not often that the defending Tour de France champion is rated as an underdog. That unlikely position is just where Carlos Sastre finds himself on the eve of the 96th edition of the Tour de France. With all eyes on Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, not to mention the Schleck brothers, Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov, Sastre seems to be the forgotten Tour winner. Even the odds-makers seem to have written him off, putting his chances at a repeat at 18-to-1.

Johan Bruyneel said if Astana wants to get rid of him as team manager, they should tell him to his face. While a months-long struggle over financial problems apparently resolved for the team ahead of the start of the Tour, the imminent return of Alexander Vinokourov seems to be creating more turbulence. A report in Friday’s edition of L’Equipe said that officials from the Kazakh-backed team plan to jettison the Belgian director and rebuild the team around Vinokourov and Spanish climber Alberto Contador.

Journalists and bloggers might be keen on planting the seeds of discontent within the Astana squad, but the team is refusing to buy into the storyline. Astana team boss Johan Bruyneel and Alberto Contador promised Friday that the team will ride as a unit during the Tour de France with the singular goal of winning. Both shot down notions that Astana will ride as a team divided, with loyalties split between seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and Contador, back to the Tour after missing out on a chance to defend his 2007 title last year.

Tom Boonen was granted an eleventh-hour reprieve, allowing him to compete in the Tour de France when it starts on Saturday, Tour organizers confirmed on Friday. The reigning Belgian national champion had been barred from the Tour following a positive test for cocaine in April, but the French Olympic Committee's arbitration panel upheld his appeal against the ban. The Quick Step rider missed last year's Tour after testing positive for cocaine for the first time. Tour organizers acknowledged the decision in a statement issued soon after the ruling was made.

Tom Boonen will find out on Friday whether he has been granted a last minute reprieve to compete in the Tour de France which starts in Monaco on Saturday. The former world road race champion, and current Belgian national champion, was barred from the Tour following a positive test for cocaine in April. Boonen's fate is being decided by the French Olympic Committee's arbitration panel. The Quick Step rider missed last year's Tour for the same reason.

Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis expressed confidence that his team will be tough to beat in the race for the maillot jaune in this year’s Tour de France. Riis, the 1996 Tour winner who two years ago admitted to having used the banned blood booster EPO as a rider, won the race for the first time as manager last year when Spaniard Carlos Sastre triumphed for CSC.

The Garmin-Slipstream team announced on Thursday that Martijn Maaskant will replace injured Irish rider Dan Martin on its Tour de France roster. Martin, who has been suffering from tendinitis in his knee, concluded that he would be unable to ride the upcoming three-week race, leaving a gap on the team's roster, which will now be filled with Maaskant. The team said that Martin had been working closely with Garmin's medical staff to resolve the issue but finally concluded that competing in the Tour posed too great a threat to his long-term prospects.

Alexander Vinokourov said Wednesday he intends to ride for Astana later this year or there will be serious consequences for those who keep him from riding on the Kazakh-financed team. In a press conference held in Monaco in advance of Saturday’s Tour de France start, Vinokourov, whose suspension for homologous blood doping ends on July 24, said there’s no possibility that he would ride for any team other than the one he helped establish in 2006.

Yellow jersey contender Cadel Evans remains upbeat despite the unwelcome news that his Silence-Lotto teammate Thomas Dekker has been ruled out of the Tour de France due to a positive doping control. Dekker, a two-time Dutch champion, was set to help Evans in this year's July 4-26 race but found out Wednesday that a sample from December 2007, kept for later re-testing, had tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO.