Tour de France facing decisive image challenge

By Julien Pretot

BREST, France (Reuters) - The Tour de France, still reeling from last year's doping affairs, will face the daunting task of restoring cycling's image when it starts its three-week journey of more than 3,500km on Saturday.

A scandal-free race would lift its battered reputation but another doping-hit edition in front of more than two billion television viewers would be disastrous for an event that more than any other crystallizes the plague of drugs on sport.

"One month from now, we will not be the same, in one way or another," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told Reuters.

All doping tests will be conducted by the French Anti-Doping Agency since the race has been put under the jurisdiction of the French federation because of a long-standing row between organizers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and the International Cycling Union over who decides on the teams taking part in their events.

ASO shook up the field by not inviting the Astana team because of their past doping record, consequently leaving out last year's champion Alberto Contador of Spain.

EVANS FAVOURITE

Astana were asked to leave the race last year after Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov tested positive following his stage win in Albi.

Then leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was kicked out of the event for allegedly lying on his training whereabouts and the Cofidis team withdrew after Italian Cristian Moreni tested positive for testosterone.

Deprived of Astana, arguably the strongest outfit in the peloton, the race is expected to be wide open and favorite Cadel Evans of Australia will find it hard to clinch his first victory after finishing runner-up last year.

For the first time since 1967, there will be no prologue and sprinters will find it hard to shine in the first week, with mostly hilly stages favoring the audacious.

More of a wise tactician than an attacker, Silence-Lotto's Evans believes he will win the race in the time trials.

"Logically, the time trials are where I should do best, and where I should be able to win the Tour," he said.

However, with a team unlikely to control the race as seven-times winner Lance Armstrong's teams did from 1999 to 2005, Evans will be attacked from everywhere.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde of the Caisse d'Epargne team, who will be backed up by 2006 champion Oscar Pereiro, will be among the top contenders although he has been an under-achiever on the Tour.

ITALIAN CHALLENGE