This year's Tour will be without:

Floyd Landis (fastest two years ago, but full of dope)
Alberto Contador (fastest last year, for doping in his team)
Andreas Klöden (second and third in the last years, for doping in his team)
Levi Leipheimer (once third, for the same reason)
Ivano Basso (Giro winner 2006, for trying to dope)
Ivan Mayo (always among the best, for doping)
Alessandro Petacchi (best sprinter, for doping)
Tom Boonen (winner of several etappes, for doping)
Michael Rasmussen (looking like the sure winner last year, for avoiding the doping control)

So that leaves Alejandro Valverde as the No. 1 favourite unless he is arrested on the one etappe ending in Italy (he is under suspicion as a customer of the dope pope Fuentes).

Wolfgang