Tour de France 2009

Contador won the Tour de France in 2007 with the Discovery Channel team and is making his first appearance on the Tour since then with Khazakstan-based Astana. In 2008, Contador had joined Astana, but the team was barred from participating in the Tour due to a doping scandal from 2007. Contador is one of the pre-race favorites, especially considering his support riders on the Astana team.

Contador has Germany's Andreas Kloeden and Levi Leipheimer of the US on his side, both previous podium finishers in the Tour. But his biggest co-star is American Lance Armstrong, who won seven consecutive Tours before retiring in 2005. Despite some speculation that Armstrong could go after the Tour title himself, his official role on the Astana team is as a support rider for Contador. However, should Contador falter, Armstrong, Kloeden, or Leipheimer are capable of making a push for the yellow jersey themselves.

Despite sitting out last year's Tour de France because of Astana's doping ban, Contador still had a busy year. He won the sport's two other biggest races – the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of Spain, becoming the fifth man ever to have won all three of cycling's major competitions. Contador also won the Spanish time trial title this year in June and won the Tour of the Basque Country in April. Contador's strengths are his climbing ability, but with his win at the Spanish time trial, he's proven to be a fast rider, too.

Fewer German teams, but talent still remains

Andreas Kloeden isn't the only German riding in this year's Tour de France. Six of German team Milram's nine riders are from Germany. The team is led by captains Linus Gerdemann and Gerald Ciolek. Gerdemann, 27, wore the yellow jersey for part of the 2007 Tour and claimed a stage victory, while Ciolek, 22, is a former world youth champion and sprint specialist with a good shot at the Tour's green sprinter's jersey.

"The green jersey is certainly a realistic goal," Ciolek told German broadcaster WDR.

Milram is the last remaining German team on tour. Long-time powerhouse T-Mobile withdrew from the sport two years ago after numerous doping scandals, some involving German cycling legend and 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich. Beverage company Gerolsteiner pulled out of its team sponsorship at the end of last year as well. The image of professional cycling in Germany has certainly taken a hit over the past few years, but Linus Gerdemann says team Milram hopes to push the sport in a new direction.

"Everyone on team Milram is aware of the gravity of the situation," Gerdemann told WDR. "And we're committed to riding clean and fair. I hope we can do our part to improve the image of professional cycling."

An additional German standout on the Tour is Tony Martin, a 24-year-old prospect riding for American team Colombia-Highroad. Martin was dominant in the mountains at the Tour of Switzerland this year and came in second place overall.

Extensive doping controls

UCI, international cycling's governing body, has said that the 2009 Tour de France will be one of the most heavily scrutinized sporting events ever in terms of doping control. UCI will work together with French Anti-Doping Agency AFLD to conduct over 500 doping control tests during the three week race.

Part of UCI's strategy includes biological passports for riders, which have been created over the past year by taking blood and urine samples to be used as a basis of comparison for samples taken during the Tour.

The effects of doping have caused severe damage to the sport and the Tour de France over the past few years. In 2006, authorities in Spain uncovered a major doping scandal, labelled Operation Puerto. Several riders were implicated on the eve of the Tour, and riders are still feeling the effects three years later.

Alejandro Valverde was recently given a two-year ban from competing in Italy after a blood sample from last year's Tour de France proved to be a DNA match with blood samples associated with Operation Puerto. One stage of the 2009 Tour de France passes through Italy, making Valverde ineligible to compete.

The 2009 Tour de France begins on July 4 with a 15.5 kilometer time trial in Monaco. The Tour includes additional diversions from France in Spain, Andorra, Italy, and Switzerland before wrapping up in Paris on July 26.

Over the three-week race, 180 riders from 20 teams will compete in 10 flat stages, seven mountain stages, one medium mountain stage, one additional time trial, and one team time trial. The winner of the race will effectively be decided after a punishing 21km ascent of Mont Ventoux on the second to last day of the tour. This is the first time in history that the last stage before Paris will be a mountain stage. The final day of the tour is a mostly ceremonial stage from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to the finish line on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

mz/Reuters/dpa/AP/AFP
Editor: Trinity Hartman