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Posted 7-4-08
Tour de France Begins Today
Brest, France (SportsNetwork) -- There are 21 stages this year, 10 flat, 5 mountain, 4 medium mountain, and two individual time-trial stages. For the first time since 1967, there will be no prologue to start the Tour de France.
The city of Brest will start the 2008 Tour de France Saturday. This maritime city was besieged by bomb attacks during World War II. The Tanguy Tower is the only vestige of the past to have survived four years of German bombardments.
Etampes will start the final stage of the Tour de France. Etampes has a population of 26,000 and is nicknamed "Little Venice," as four rivers run through the city. Etampes is one of ten new stop-over towns this year, along with Auray, Aigurande, Brioude, Prato Nevoso (Italy), Cuneo (Italy), Jausiers, Embrun, Roanne and Crilly.
The final stage is a hilly course running to Paris, as it winds through the Chevreuse Valley before the traditional loop on the Champs-Elysees. This has been the final stage of the Tour de France since its inception in 1903.
Last year, Spain's Alberto Contador won the 2007 Tour de France. Contador finished safely in the pack of the final stage, won by Italian Daniele Bennati, to secure the crown. The Spaniard, racing for the Discovery Channel Team, finished 23 seconds ahead of Australian Cadel Evans. American LeviLeipheimer was third, 31 seconds back. Bennati won the 20th and final stage of the 2007 race, a 146 kilometer jaunt from Marcoussis to the Champs-Elysees in Paris, by sprinting to the finish ahead of Norway's Thor Hushovd and Germany's Erik Zabel.
The 2007 race lost some of its luster in the wake of doping-related expulsions, including Denmark's Michael Rasmussen, who led the overall standings before being removed from the race by his team. Rasmussen's Rabobank team banished the Danish rider from the race after discovering he lied of his whereabouts during his training in June. Rasmussen was apparently supposed to be training in Mexico, but the team later found out he was in Italy during a time when he reportedly missed random drug tests. It was the third notable doping-related dismissal from the Tour. Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team left the Tour after accusations of doping and the Cofidis team abandoned after Italy's Cristian Moreni apparently tested positive fortestosterone following the 11th stage of the Tour.
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