Tour de France starts without defending champ

JEROME PUGMIRE | The Associated Press

7/5/2008 - 7/5/08

PLUMELEC, France— The Tour de France began Saturday with a ride through flat country favoring sprinters, the opening stage of a three-week race trying to restore its luster after years of doping scandals.

The 123-mile ride from Brest to Plumelec in Brittany features 180 riders. But Alberto Contador, last year's winner, was not among them. His Astana team is banned by organizers after doping infractions by other riders.

Among the challengers for this year's 2,175-mile test are Australia's Cadel Evans, Spain's Alejandro Valverde, Russia's Denis Menchov and Italy's Damiano Cunego.

This is the first time since 1967 the Tour began without an opening-day prologue. French cyclist Herve Duclos-Lassalle of the Cofidis team became the first rider to pull out when he crashed after a rider's refreshments bag got stuck in his front-wheel spokes.

Cofidis sporting director Francis Van Londersele said Duclos-Lassalle broke his left wrist and went to the hospital.

"It's a silly accident," he said. "Another cyclist put his bag in front of him. It's really tough for him — all the hopes are gone."

This marks the second straight year the race began without a defending champion. Before Contador, 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 Astana's ouster, and Astana rider Levi Leipheimer.

Ivan Basso, the 2006 Giro d'Italia winner and two-time Tour podium finisher, is also 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.

"People are talking about the ones who are absent, but once the race starts, people will stop talking about them and start talking about those who are here," said Patrice Leclerc, head of Tour organizer ASO.

The 95th edition of the Tour takes riders from Brittany through the Massif Central range. The race then moves through the Pyrenees, across Provence to the Alps and into Paris for the July 27 finish on the Champs-Elysees. Time trials await in Stage 4 and the next-to-last Stage 20.

"This race has never been as open as this year, so I'm convinced that this Tour has everything it needs to be a great Tour," Leclerc said. "It's up to the riders to give us the answer."