Le Tour de France

2007 Tour de France

The 2007 Tour de France event was the 94th held. The race will run from Saturday July 7th to Sunday July 29th 2007.
It will will cover a total distance of 3553.9 km and be made up of a prologue and 20 stages, which includes 11 flat stages, 6 mountain stages, 1 medium mountain stage, and 2 individual time-trial stages.

There will be 21 teams of 9 riders, with a total of 189 riders, starting the race.
Some distinctive aspects of this race are 3 mountain finishes, 2 rest days, 117 kilometres of individual time-trials (including the prologue) and 21 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.
The 2007 Tour de France opens with the prologue around the streets of central London, with London’s world famous landmarks providing a stunning backdrop. The first full stage will be conducted through Kent. This will be the 3rd time that the tour has visited England - it was also held in Plymouth in 1974 and two stages were held across Kent, Sussex and Hampshire in 1994.
As was last year's event, this tour was marked by doping controversies. During the event, three cyclists were thrown out of the race and two teams withdrew after positive doping test results, including pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov and the whole Astana Team, Michael Rasmussen who was accused of lying about his whereabouts preceding the Tour and failing to make himself available for random drug testing, and Iban Mayo who tested positive for EPO.
The over all event winner Alberto Contador also won the white jersey for to the best young (under age 25) rider. (see full list of event winners)