Tour de France begins Sunday without last year's champion
Cadel Evans, runner-up last year, is favored by bookmakers after 2007 winner Alberto Contador's Astana team was barred because two of its riders failed doping tests last year.
The three-week race, which starts in Brest in northwest France on July 5, is trying to recover after another outbreak of scandals at last year's race.
"The race has had a rough time, but the scandals are a catalyst for change," Jonathan Vaughters, manager of the Boulder, Colorado-based Garmin-Chipotle team, said in an interview. "Without them, nothing changes."
While Contador's win with the now-disbanded Discovery Channel team isn't disputed, Michael Rasmussen was ejected while leading after missing drug controls. Pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov failed a test for blood doping.
In 2006, Floyd Landis was the first Tour winner to be stripped of the title for drug use. He lost a final appeal against the suspension this week.
Contador will be missed, said fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre, who is seeking his first win after five top-10 finishes since 2002.
Even so, Sastre said, it won't "take the gloss off victory for the cyclist who wins after 3,500 kilometers in the heat, mountains, wind and rain."
Contador beat Evans by 23 seconds last year in the closest finish since 1989.
Seeking to make the race more unpredictable, Paris-based organizer Amaury Sport Organisation dropped the time-trial opening for the first time since 1967.
The prologue will be replaced with a 195-kilometer (121- mile) stage from Brest to Plumelec. The organizer also dropped "time bonuses," a move designed to help keep riders closer together and lead to tighter stage finishes.
The bonuses had been awarded to leading riders at pre-set times during stages.
On June 3, Amaury said it would switch the race's jurisdiction to the French cycling federation from the Union Cycliste Internationale, escalating a four-year power struggle with the world ruling body.
The ruling body says the decision is "deeply regrettable." Drug tests will now be done by France's anti- doping laboratory instead of the Aigle, Switzerland-based UCI.
Evans's Odds
With no previous race winners in this year's 180-strong field, Evans is a 2-1 favorite with London-based SportingBet Plc, an online bookmaker. He is seeking to become the first Australian to win the 105-year-old race.
"Cadel Evans is favorite on paper, but it's a very open race," Vaughters said. "The course has a lot of middle-sized mountains that lend itself to unpredictability."
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