No No. 1 for first time in Tour history
By Andrew Hood
Photo: Agence France Presse – 2007
Enrico Degano – an Italian on the Barloworld wild-card team – will be the first rider out of the gate in Saturday’s prologue start to the 94th Tour de France.
Degano will role down the start ramp at 3 p.m. London time in the 7.9km course through the heart of downtown London past such landmarks as Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.
The 189-rider start list was released Friday ahead of the traditional prologue, with last year’s runner-up, Oscar Pereiro, starting last at 6:08 p.m.
Pereiro snagged the No. 11 start bib after Tour officials decided to not award the traditional No. 1 bib of the returning defending champion. With the status of the doping case of last year’s winner Floyd Landis still unresolved, Tour officials didn’t assign the No. 1 bib for the first time in Tour history.
A decision in the Landis case could come as early as Friday, creating the unusual situation in which news of last year’s Tour will dominate the news of this year’s Tour.
Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) is the first American out of the gate at 3:38 p.m. in 39th position.
Other Americans include:61. Dave Zabriskie (CSC), 4 p.m.102. Fred Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto), 4:41 p.m.103. Christian Vande Velde (CSC), 4:42 p.m.158. George Hincapie (Discovery Channel), 5:37 p.m.179. Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), 5:58 p.m.
Photo:
Ag2rChristophe Moreau (F)Cyril Dessel (F)John Gadret (F)José Luis Arrieta (Sp)Stéphane Goubert (F)Martin Elmiger (Swi)Ludovic Turpin (F)Sylvain Calzati (F)Simon Gerrans (Aus)
AgritubelFreddy Bichot (F)Moise Dueñas (Sp)Romain Feillu (F)Eduardo Gonzálo (Sp)Cedric Hervé (F)Nicolas Jalabert (F)Juan Miguel Mercado (Sp)Benoit Salmon (F)Nicolas Vogondy (F)
Photo:
AstanaAntonio Colom (Sp)Maxim Iglinskiy (Kz)Serguei Ivanov (Rus)Andrey Kashechkin (Kz)Andreas Klöden (G)Daniel Navarro (Sp)Gregory Rast (Swi)Paolo Savoldelli (I)Alexandre Vinokourov (Kz)
ReservesGennady Mikhailov (Rus)Jose Antonio Redondo (Sp)
BarloworldFélix Cardénas (Col)Gianpaolo Cheula (I)Enrico Degano (I)Alexander Efimkin (Rus)Robert Hunter (RSA)Paolo Longo Borghini (I)Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr)Mauricio Soler (Col)Geraint Thomas (GB)
Photo:
Bouygues TelecomPierrick Fedrigo (F)Anthony Geslin (F)Laurent Lefevre (F)Jérôme Pineau (F)Matthieu Sprick (F)Thomas Voeckler (F)Stef Clement (Nl)Xavier Florencio (Sp)Johann Tschopp (Swi)
Caisse d’EpargneDavid Arroyo (Sp)Vicente Garcia Acosta (Sp)Ivan Gutierrez (Sp)Vladimir Karpets (Rus)Oscar Pereiro (Sp)Fran Perez (Sp)Nicolas Portal (F)Alejandro Valverde (Sp)Xabier Zandio(Sp)
Photo:
CofidisStephane Auge (F)Sylvain Chavanel (F)Geoffroy Lequatre (F)Cristian Moreni (I)Ivan Parra (Col)Nick Nuyens (B)Staf Scheirlinckx (B)Rik Verbrugghe (B)Bradley Wiggins (GB)
Credit AgricoleWilliam Bonnet (F)Alexandre Botcharov (Rus)Anthony Charteau (F)Julian Dean (NZ)Dmitriy Fofonov (Kz)Patrice Halgand (F)Sebastien Hinault (F)Thor Hushovd (N)Christophe Le Mevel (F)
ReservesLaszlo Bodrogi (Hun)
Photo:
CSCCarlos Sastre (Sp)Fränk Schleck (Lux)Jens Voigt (G)Stuart O’Grady (Aus)Fabian Cancellara (Swi)Inigo Cuesta (Sp)Kurt-Asle Arvesen (N)Christian Vande Velde (USA)David Zabriskie (USA)
Discovery ChannelLevi Leipheimer (USA)George Hincapie (USA)Alberto Contador (Sp)Benjamin Noval (Sp)Egoi Martinez (Sp)Sergio Paulinho (P)Tomas Vaitkus (Lit)Vladimir Gusev (Rus)Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
Photo:
Euskaltel-EuskadiIgor Anton (Sp)Mikel Astarloza (Sp)Jorge Azanza (Sp)Inaki Isasi (Sp)Inigo Landaluze (Sp)Ruben Perez (Sp)Amets Txurruka (Sp)Gorka Verdugo (Sp)Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)
Française des JeuxSandy Casar (F)Sebastien Chavanel (F)Mickael Delage (F)Remy Di Gregorio (F)Philippe Gilbert (B)Lilian Jegou (F)Matthieu Ladagnous (F)Thomas Lovkvist (S)Benoit Vaugrenard (F)
Photo:
GerolsteinerMarkus Fothen (G)Robert Forster (G)Heinrich Haussler (G)Bernhard Kohl (A)Sven Krauss (G)Ronny Scholz (G)Stefan Schumacher (G)Fabian Wegmann (G)Peter Wrolich (A)
Reserves: David Kopp (G)Volker Ordowski (G)
Lampre-FonditalAlessandro Ballan (I)Daniele Bennati (I)Paolo Bossoni (I)Marzio Bruseghin (I)Claudio Corioni (I)Danilo Napolitano (I)Daniele Righi (I)Tadej Valjavec (SLO)Patxi Vila (Sp)
Photo:
LiquigasFilippo Pozzato (I)Manuel Quinziato (I)Manuel Beltrán (Sp)Michael Albasini (Swi)Kjell Calström (Fin)Murilo Fischer (Brz)Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr)Charles Wegelius (GB)Frederik Willems (B)
MilramErik Zabel (G)Ralf Grabsch (G)Marcel Sieberg (G)Christian Knees (G)Enrico Poitschke (G)Andriy Grivko (Ukr)Alberto Ongarato (I)Alessandro Cortinovis (I)Brett Lancaster (Aus)
Photo:
Predictor-LottoMario Aerts (B)Dario Cioni (I)Cadel Evans (Aus)Chris Horner (USA)Leif Hoste (B)Robbie McEwen (Aus)Fred Rodriguez (USA)Wim Vansevenant (B)Johan Vansummeren (B)
Quick Step-InnergeticCarlos Barredo (Sp)Tom Boonen (B)Steven De Jongh (Nl)Juan Manuel Garate (Sp)Bram Tankink (Nl)Matteo Tosatto (I)Sebastien Rosseler (B)Gert Steegmans (B)Cédric Vasseur (F)
Photo:
RabobankMichael Boogerd (Nl)Bram de Groot (Nl)Thomas Dekker (Nl)Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp)Oscar Freire (Sp)Denis Menchov (Russia)Grischa Niermann (Nl)Michael Rasmussen (Dk)Peter Weening (Nl)
Saunier Duval-ProdirDavid Canada (Sp)Fran Ventoso (Sp)Iban Mayo (Sp)David de la Fuente (Sp)Juan Jose Cobo (Sp)Iker Camano (Sp)Ruben Lobato (Sp)Christophe Rinero (F)David Millar (GB)
ReservesAngel Litu Gomez (Sp) Jesus del Nero (Sp)
Photo:
T-MobileMichael Rogers (Aus)Mark Cavendish (GB)Marcus Burghardt (G)Linus Gerdemann (G)Kim Kirchen (Lux)Bernhard Eisel (A)Axel Merckx (B)Bert Grabsch (G)Patrick Sinkewitz (G)
