May 19/03 10:11 am - Tour de France Selections, Forums Update

Posted by Editor on 05/19/03
 

Tour de France

The Tour de France organization (Amaury Sports Organization) has announced their final list of the teams which will participate in this year's Tour ... sort of. The big losers are Mario Cipollini and his Domina Vacanze team, and Jan Ullrich's imploding Coast squad. The ASO left a door open for Ullrich, though, saying that they could potentially add a 22nd team if the expected reorganization of Coast into Bianchi goes through quickly. French teams did particularly well, with 6 selections (including 3 of the final 4 wild cards), followed by Italy with 4, Spain with 3, Germany and Belgium with 2, and Denmark, Netherlands and the USA with 1 each.

Probably one of the most interesting things is the missing riders. Besides Cipollini and Ullrich, Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno), last year's third place Raimundas Rumsas (Lampre) and Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE). This should certainly make things easier for Lance Armstrong (US Postal) as he goes for his fifth victory.

Teams selected for the 2003 Tour de France:

Ag2r-Prevoyance
Alessio
Brioches La Boulangère
Cofidis
Credit Agricole
Euskaltel-Euskadi
Fassa Bortolo
FDJeux.com
Gerolsteiner
ibanesto.com
Jean Delatour
Kelme
Lotto-Domo
ONCE
Quick Step-Davitamon
Rabobank
Sidermec
Saeco
Team CSC
Telekom
US Postal - Berry Floor


Technical Problem with The Forums

We are aware that the Forums are currently off line. With the amount of news being reported over the past couple of days there was not been time to fix it. However, it will go back online today.