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The 2007 Tour de France, the 94th running of the race, took place from July 7 to July 29, 2007. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and Spain. It was won by Spanish rider Alberto Contador. The organisers of the Tour and London mayor Ken Livingstone announced on January 24, 2006 that the start of the Tour would take place in London. Livingstone noted the two stages would commemorate the victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, saying "Having the Grand Départ on the seventh of July will broadcast to the world that terrorism does not shake our city." The routes for the Prologue in London and the first full stage through Kent, finishing in Canterbury, were announced on February 9, 2006 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. This was the third time the Tour visited England, including Plymouth in (1974) and two stages in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire in (1994). Tour director Christian Prudhomme unveiled the 2007 route in Paris on October 26, 2006. In total, the route covered 3,569.9 kilometres (2,218.2 mi).[1] The Tour was marked by doping controversies, with three riders and two teams withdrawn during the race following positive doping tests, including pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team. Following Stage 16, the holder of the yellow jersey, Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the Tour by his Rabobank team, who accused him of lying about the reasons for missing several drug tests earlier in the year. The green jersey, given to the best sprinter, was won for the first time by Tom Boonen, who had failed to complete the previous two Tours after leading the green jersey competition at times during each. The polka dot jersey, given to the best mountain climber, was won by Mauricio Soler in his first Tour appearance. The yellow jersey, given to the overall leader, was closely contested until the final time trial on Stage 19. The top three riders, Alberto Contador in yellow, Cadel Evans in second, and Levi Leipheimer in third, were separated by only 2:49, with both Evans and Leipheimer recognized as far superior time trialists to Contador. In the end, each rider held his place after the final time trial, but with considerably slimmer margins, as the Tour ended with the smallest-ever spread of only 31 seconds among the top three riders. Alberto Contador also won the white jersey as the best young (under age 25) rider.
[edit] Teams
21 teams started the race – each had 9 riders at the start of the tour i.e., 189 started in total. The teams[2] were:
[edit] Pre-race favouritesAfter the retirement of seven-time winner Lance Armstrong and with Floyd Landis not entering the Tour, the bookmakers' favourite to win the 2007 Tour de France was Alexander Vinokourov, who was unable to start in 2006 due to lack of team members, but did win the 2006 Vuelta a España. The main challengers were expected to be the 2006 Tour de France second place finisher Andreas Klöden; and Alejandro Valverde, who dropped out of the 2006 Tour de France after a crash, but came second to Vinokourov in the 2006 Vuelta a España. Shown in the table below are the riders that, according to the bookmakers[3] on July 7, 2007, the start day of the 2007 Tour de France, had the best chances of winning the 2007 Tour.
Janez Brajkovič, Damiano Cunego, Tom Danielson and Koldo Gil were all offered at odds within the range of this table, but withdrew before the race field was finalised. [edit] Stages
[edit] Stage recaps[edit] Jersey progress
[edit] Overall standingsThe light blue background indicates the wearer of the white jersey. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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