All-star cast for 2008 Tour de Georgia

This is an interesting line-up for the sixth annual Tour de Georgia, which gets underway Monday on Tybee Island.

We have international stars, home-grown favorites, accused dopers, and two former winners, although last year's champion Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia) is not on the roster for Astana.

I'm sure all that talent will be more alert in the early stages this year. If you remember, all the favorites were out of contention by the end of Stage 3 when a breakaway of 13 young riders attacked and beat the peloton by nearly 30 minutes.

Former champs

The two former winners in this year's Tour are Chris Horner and Tom Danielson.

Horner won the inaugural Tour de Georgia in 2003 as a member of the Saturn team. He returns on Astana as the top-numbered rider (No. 2) in the peloton. The 36-year-old Oregonian spent the past couple of seasons on the Predictor-Lotto (aka Davitamon-Lotto) squad.

Danielson took the 2005 Tour de Georgia as a member of Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team. He jumped over to Team Slipstream after Discovery disbanded at the end of last year.

US riders

There's no shortage of well-known US riders in the peloton. Levi Leipheimer (Astana) won his second straight Tour of California in February. George Hincapie (High Road) won the inaugural Tour of Missouri last fall.

Bobby Julich returns as the leader of Team CSC, which also has Jason McCartney.

A host of US riders joins Danielson and Dave Zabriskie on Slipstream: Tyler Farrar (the Wenatchie, Washington, native who led Tour of California for awhile), Timmy Duggan, Lucas Euser, Danny Pate, and Christian VandeVelde.

Rock Racing features Tyler Hamilton and Freddy Rodriguez.

International flavor

Although Italy's Mario Cipollini was a one-race wonder for Rock Racing, the team is bringing Santiago Botero and Victor Hugo Pena (Colombia), and Oscar Sevilla (Spain) to the starting line.

The TDG blog reminds us that Hamilton, Sevilla and Botero were all prevented from competing in the Tour of California in February because of their alleged ties to the ongoing Operacion Puerto investigation.

Roster

Here's the Tour de Georgia roster (.pdf document) that is reproduced below.

Last name first:

1.) Astana LUX AST

2.) Team CSC DEN CSC

3.) High Road USA THR

4.) Gerolsteiner GER GST

5.) Symmetrics Cycling Team CAN SYM

6.) Trek-Marco Polo Cycling Team CHN MPC

7.) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 USA P Cont TSL

8.) BMC Racing Team USA P Cont BMC

9.) Bissell Pro Cycling USA Cont BPC

10.) Health Net Presented by Maxxis USA Cont HNM

11.) Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team USA Cont TUP

12.) Team Type 1 USA Cont TT1

13.) The Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team USA Cont JIT

14.) Jelly Belly Cycling Team USA Cont JBC

15.) Rock Racing USA Cont RRC