2008 Tour De France

About 2008 Tour De France

The 2008 Tour de France is the 95th Tour de France. The event will take place from July 5 to July 27, 2008. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour will enter Italy on the 15th stage and return to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regular final destination, which will be reached in the 21st stage. All time bonuses for intermediate sprints and at each stage finish line have been scrapped.

On February 13, 2008, the event organisers, the Amaury Sport Organisation, announced that the Astana Team would be barred from the 2008 Tour due to its involvement in the doping scandals that marred the 2007 Tour and its links to the 2006 Operación Puerto doping case. This move comes despite an almost complete turnover of the team's management, and rider roster in the wake of the 2007 scandals. The ASO's decision means that defending champion Alberto Contador and last year's third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer, both of whom signed with the revamped Astana Team, will not compete in the 2008 Tour. 2007 green jersey (points) winner Tom Boonen tested positive for cocaine in a test on May 26, 2008. Since this was outside competition, Boonen does not face sanctions by the UCI or WADA. Despite the absence of official sanctions, Boonen was barred from the 2008 Tour de France.

Because of the struggles between the ASO and the UCI, the 2008 Tour de France is not organized under UCI rules. Therefore the UCI protour teams were not automatically all invited. The ASO announced on 20 March 2008 that all UCI-teams except Astana were invited. Additionally, Agritubel, Barloworld and Slipstream-Chipotle (renamed Garmin-Chipotle before the race) were given a wildcard. The 20 teams invited to the race are: