Thursday, October 25, 2007

Le Tour 2008 route to be revealed


Spain's Alberto Contador won the crisis-hit Tour this year

The 2008 Tour de France route is expected to favour the Alps at the expense of the Pyrenees.

The route for the 95th Tour, which will begin on 5 July in Brittany, will be revealed at 1130 BST on Thursday.

The prologue, which was last year hosted by London, has been dropped for the first time since 1967.

The 2007 race, won by Alberto Contador, was marred by several positive doping tests as well as the sacking of one-time race leader Michael Rasmussen.

In a bid to crack down on drug abuse, all riders next year will have to possess a "biological passport" under a scheme being set up by the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Wada and the UCI said on Monday they planned to collect blood samples from all professional riders to create a medical profile that would then be compared to the data registered in doping tests.

Next year's race is expected to go anti-clockwise, tackling the hilly Massif Central then the Pyrenees mountains before the yellow jersey battle moves up a notch in the Alps.

According to reports, the peleton will also make a brief foray into the Italian Alps.

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